In an exciting matchup against the Pine City Dragons and the Moose Lake Willow River Rebels the Dragons had an upsetting loss with a final score of 53-74 in the Dragons home gym.
A tough game was played and both teams fought their hardest to come out on top with the victory, and ultimately that was the Rebels. Both teams played well and got into their own respective rhythm quickly in the first half with the Dragons knocking down a couple of answer three pointers to keep them within reach of the Rebels lead. The Rebels played a difficult to break zone defense in the first half that the Dragons took advantage of by knocking down those threes forcing the Rebels to switch back to a man defense. The Dragons played an aggressive full court zone press that gave the Rebels a little bit of a struggle and kept the score close going into halftime.
A couple of key players for both teams showed their effort in the game, for the Rebels it was Eli Youngs, playing aggressively and making quite a few steals throughout the game. He led the team in scoring with 29 points. For the Dragons Kyle Allen selected Grant Larson as his player of the game and it was well deserved with two charges under his belt, as well as scoring 13 points for his team. Another key player in the games was Aiden Weiner. He bolstered 9 points as well as being their number one rebounder under the hoop before he fouled out just before the end of the game, a rather pivotal moment for the Dragons.
In the end the Dragons had a hard fought loss against the Rebels with both teams playing the best basketball they could possibly muster with many great hustle plays and hard work put in to try and come out on top.
Article and photo by: Mac Nelson
