The Lady Dragons made their way to Elk River on Saturday morning for their regular season finale.
This game was played at 10:30 in the morning, which meant this was the 2nd game in 12 hours for Pine City. This coming at the end of a chaotic week. This game was originally scheduled for Tuesday but because mother nature decide to blast us with some artic cold, this game was forced to move.
As the game tipped off, Spectrum certainly came out with more juice. They were more rested, having last played on Thursday, and were playing at home which meant having to get up later, more rest. But Pine City played through the fatigue but you could tell things were off for them. Spectrum got out to an early lead and eventually took a double digit lead. Pine City would try and execute their play calls but again fatigue played in big factor in them struggling. At the break they would trail 28-13.
One thing Pine City had going for them was the fact that they have had several games this year where they were down at half, but used the 2nd half to make a comeback and win. The 2nd half began and you could definitely tell the Dragons had a new sense of urgency. They found a way to battle through fatigue, and play hard and began to make a comeback. They managed to cut the deficit to under 10 points and it felt like they were bound to complete the comeback. The Sting were able to stop the comeback and grow their lead back to double digits, but once they did Pine City came storming back. This was the way the 2nd half played out for nearly its entirety. But late in the game Spectrum was able to come up with more rebounds on both sides of the court which lead to more scoring opportunities which they capitalized on. Pine City fought hard but came up short 55-40.
The regular season has come to a close for the Dragons, but now a new one begins, the playoffs. They'll head to Albany on Thursday for a 1st round playoff battle.
Scoring
Pine City:
Mallory Clepper 13
Piper Mettling 12
Brooke Boland 9
Paige Gray 5
