The Pine City girl's basketball team came to an abrupt close on Wednesday night as the Dragons fell to Sauk Centre 58-28 at St. John's University. Pine City came into this game with high hopes for a second straight trip to the Section Championship game, but it was the Mainstreeters who ultimately came out with the victory.
When two of the top defensive teams in the state meet you know it's going to be a low scoring game and when these teams met in the regular season finale that is exactly what we saw. Things started a little slow for Pine City but they hung tight in the first half trailing 25-12. They played well but shots just weren't falling for Pine City.
Early in the second half Pine City couldn't break the scoring drought and allowed Sauk Centre to pull away early in the second half. The Mainstreeters shut down defense kept Pine City from getting great chances and the Dragons fell 58-28. This game will ultimately go down as a disappointing end to what was otherwise a fantastic season for the Dragons who end at 26-3.
Ellie Hasz led the Dragons with 10 points and four rebounds. Meredith Kolling scored seven. The Dragons also received three points from Lily Wilson, Alaina Steele, and Ashley Faur while Sophie Lahti added two.
Sauk Centre was led by Tori Peschel with 24 points and 13 rebounds. They received eight points from Julia Dammann and seven from Michaela Dammann. Maddie Nelson scored six and McKenna Westby added five. Megan Klaphake and Audrey Zenzen each scored three and Claire Neubert added two.
Sauk Centre will move on to take on Albany on Friday night.
Pine City will say goodbye to a really strong group of seniors that played a huge part in building the Dragon program to where it is today. Alaina Steele, Lily Wilson, Ashley Faur, Makenna Nelson, and Ally Chromey. Thank you seniors!
