Last year Maple Lake made it to the state tournament in Class A and did well, so the Bulldogs knew it could be a tough game.
It was evident in the first quarter who wanted the game more. Paynesville jumped ahead in the first quarter and never looked back.
Everyone of the Bulldog players scored in the game, showing great team work.
Paynesville just ran away with the game and had a lot of fun doing it after two previous losses.
Key players in the game were Josh Jones with 22 points and 14 rebounds, Brent Heinen with 14 points and four three-pointers, Ryan Hemingson with 14 points and seven boards, Eric Glenz with nine points and 12 boards, and J.T. Koehn with eight rebounds and eight blocked shots.
Paynesville senior Matt Carstens suffered a sprained ankle in the previous game against Kimball and was unable to play.
Maple Lake: 6 14 14 12 -46
Paynesville: 18 16 17 29 -80
Kimball
On Thursday, December 17, Paynesville traveled to Belgrade for the first game of the holiday tournament against Kimball, who Paynesville had already beaten quite handily for their season opener.
In the first quarter Paynesville seemed to be in control, but the offense kept turning the ball over.
The second quarter was much of the same for the Bulldogs. Paynesville was ahead but couldn’t put the game away. Kimball kept coming back with a couple of lucky shots or three-pointers.
In the third quarter, Paynesville looked as if they were going to finally put the game away and were up by seven points going into the fourth quarter.
Kimball rallied with 22 points in the quarter. Paynesville’s Josh Jones was the only Bulldog to score a field goal in the entire quarter by hitting a three in the closing minutes. But it didn’t help as Paynesville went on to lose, 53-46.
Jones and Eric Glenz led the Bulldogs in scoring both of them with 10 points in the game.
Kimball: 10 8 13 22 -53
Paynesville: 12 9 17 8 -46
Cathedral
On Tuesday Dec. 15, the Bulldogs’ hosted their first conference game of the season against St. Cloud Cathedral.
The Crusaders were undefeated coming into the game, so Paynesville had nothing to lose.
The Bulldogs quickly found out that the Crusaders were a very quick team and had to play some tough defense.
Paynesville kept up with the Crusaders in the first half and found themselves only down six at the half.
The third quarter was dead even with both teams scoring 15 points. Paynes-ville was still down by six.
At one point in the final quarter the Bulldogs went up by a point but couldn’t hang onto the lead and let the game slip away again.
Senior Ryan Hemingson scored a game high of 21 points. Paynesville lost the game 64-58.