The Pine City girls basketball team hosted Spectrum in the 1st round of the playoffs Thursday night.
It was a rematch between the two teams from earlier in the season, when Pine City edged Spectrum by 9. It was a game that featured the sections 2nd best defense in the Sting, and the 2nd best scoring offense in the Dragons. It was the Dragons offense that got things rolling. They jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Not long into the 1st half Pine City's Karly Jusczak hit a free throw for her 16th point of the game, this was her 2,000th career point! She quickly celebrated and then got back to work, helping the Dragons extend their lead even more. Pine City's defense showed how good they were, forcing 12 Sting turnovers and 7 of them were steals. The Dragons well balanced attack helped them to a 30-16 lead at half.
The 2nd half was not too different from the first, the Dragons offense pushed the pace and continued to attack the basket, and the defense forced turnovers and didn't allow any room for the Sting to breathe. With Pine City well in the lead, it allowed them to bring in their younger players for valuable varsity playoff minutes. The Dragons walked away with the win in convincing fashion 67-33!
With the win the Dragons punch their ticket to the section quarterfinals. They'll gave a rematch against Sauk Centre on Saturday at St. John's University at 4:30pm!
Congrats to Karly on reaching and surpassing 2,000 career points!
Scoring:
Pine City
Karly Jusczak 34
Summer Thieman and Brooke Boland 10
Mallory Clepper and Vivian Lahti 5
Paige Gray 3
Photo Credit: Four Seasons Photography
