The Pine City girls basketball team hosted perennial power house Minnehaha Academy on Friday evening.
Before the game began the team honored their three 1,000 point scorers with the ball they scored their 1,000th point with. Seniors Kloey Lind and Sophie Lahti along with Junior Karly Jusczak, known as "The Big 3", have had great careers in high school but will also be playing basketball at the next level. A huge shoutout to Karly, Kloey and Sophie!
The game had a shocking start to it, and not in the way Dragon fans would hope. In the first 6 minutes Pine City was held without a point and trailed 21-0. Pine City couldn't buy a basket in the first 6 minutes, while the Redhawks were shooting and dropping buckets from every and anywhere. But the persistence of Pine City soon prevailed and finally put themselves on the board. This sparked the Dragons offense to a big half considering the start they had. Even though Minnehaha Academy lead at half 56-35, there was certainly a feeling of momentum and confidence growing for Pine City.
The Dragon defense stepped up in a big way in the 2nd half holding the Redhawks to 28 points. Unfortunately, the Redhawk defense also had a pretty good half themselves holding the Dragons to 22 points. Despite the deficit Pine City never hung their heads never gave up and continued to fight through the very last buzzer. Pine City fell 84-57.
The Dragons now sit at 15-6 on the season and will travel to Foley on Tuesday for a section matchup.
Scoring
Pine City
Karly Jusczak 21
Sophie Lahti and Kloey Lind 14
Summer Thieman 4
Piper Mettling 3
Mallory Clepper 1