The Dragons boys basketball team finished off last week with two wins, after an opening week win against Mille Lacs.
Thursday's game against Hinckley-Finlayson was a fun, tough contest in the Great River Conference. Pine City jumped out to an early lead but the Jaguars defense quickly adjusted and made stops and created turnovers. That early lead Pine City once had quickly evaporated and the game was locked in a one score battle. As the half went along both teams seemingly got better and the lead continued to trade hands. The Dragons were able to hit a couple of late 1st half threes which helped give them a 40-36 lead at halftime.
The first part of the second half continued much like the first half. Both teams played with incredible pace and continued to trade the lead. Soon the Dragons were able to grab some key defensive rebounds to keep the Jags off the board and help their offense not only keep the lead but start to pull away. Pine City was able to close out the game with a 72-56 victory.
Luke Wilson lead the team with 26 points, Lamont Sydney followed behind him with 18 points.
On Friday night Pine City got the privilege to play at the Target Center against Maple Lake.
The Dragons dominated this game in all phases. They were able to hang 55 points in the first half while holding the Irish to 5. Pine City was able to take their foot off the gas in the second half and work their JV players in for valuable minutes. The Dragons walked away with a section win 80-28. They had five players score in double digits. Mason Charles lead the team with 17, Lamont Sydney scored 13, Riley Cummings and Luke Wilson both had 11 and Ashton Seals put up 10.
The Dragons improve to 7-6 on the season 2-1 in their section and 4-1 in conference play. They will now be on the road for the next two weeks, in Braham on Tuesday, Rush City on Friday. Then the following week at East Central and Mille Lacs. They have a great opportunity in this road stretch to take over the top spot in the conference and begin to pull away.
