The lady Dragons hosted the Braham Bombers last night.
Both teams came into last night's game with a lot riding on the line. If Braham won they kept their hopes alive of grabbing a share of the conference title, but if Pine City won they would have it outright.
The Dragons jumped out to an early 8-0 lead 4 minutes into the game. Braham's Arin Zimpel would end the drought and drain a three. From that point on the game went back and forth, when one team hit a shot the other came back and answered. Braham's Zimpel hit two more three's in the half and Pine City's Maddie Berglund hit three of her own. Braham was able to shrink the Dragon lead down to two points, but Ella Sell hit a shot from beyond the arc to put the Dragons ahead 26-21 at the half.
The 2nd half began with a bang! Carissa Nascene opened up with a trey and Zimpel would answer with one of her own. But after the impressive start Braham's defense tightened down and helped the offense score 5 points to tie the game at 29. But as soon as the Bombers tied it, the Dragons pulled ahead by 4. For the next several minutes the game was so tight you could barely breathe. With 7 minutes left in the game Braham took their first lead of the entire game 39-37, and it felt as if they were about to pull away. But once again Pine City went down and grabbed a basket to tie the game. After a Dragon timeout, the game heavily favored Pine City. They would go on an 18-6 run for the last 6 minutes of the game and claim the win 57-45. Not only did they win but they also captured the Great River Conference title for the third year in a row!
Pine City improves to 17-4 on the season and stays undefeated in conference play. They will play the Wildcats(13-7 Class AAA) in Chisago Lakes on Friday. Braham moves to 11-10 on the year but still has a lot to play for as they are currently 1st in their section. With 5 games left they look to lock the #1 spot down and have a 1st round bye plus home court advantage. They will play the Eagles at East Central on Thursday.
Scoring:
Pine City
Karly Jusczak 17
Kloey Lind 13
Carissa Nascene 12
Maddie Berglund 10
Ella Sell 5
Braham
Arin Zimpel 22
Nickole Duvernay and Sophia Johnson 6
Julia Kuhnke and Sunny Lilly 4
Madison Davis 3
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