On Tuesday, Dec. 16, the Bulldogs faced STMA at Maple Lake and came home with a solid 57-48 victory over the Knights.
Both teams played evenly throughout the first quarter, but after the first eight minutes, the Knights were up, 15-12.
The Bulldogs were unable to recover from the injury loss of Amber Michaelis in the second quater and went into the half with a 26-21 deficit.
The girls came into the second half with a new mission, to show everyone they could pull together when they needed to. This “mission” resulted in a third quarter blowout as the Lady Bulldogs scored 25 points and STMA scored only six.
During the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs scored 13 points to defeat the Knights, 57-48.
Tanya Lieser led the Bulldogs with her third double-double of the season. She had 19 points and 12 rebounds for the Bulldogs.
Paynesville: 12 9 24 12 - 57
STMA: 15 11 6 16 - 48
The Bulldogs started off the game slowly, and by the end of the first quarter, Big Lake held a 15-point lead over the Bulldogs. At one point in the first half, the Bulldogs were down 25-5. By the end of the third quarter, the Bulldogs were only down by nine with a score of 40-31. During the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs came within four points of Big Lake before they faded away. The team was led by sophomores Carrie Hemmesch and Tanya Lieser. Hemmesch netted 15 points while Lieser ripped down eight rebounds and blocked four shots. Big Lake: 20 12 8 19 - 59 The Bulldogs started the game strongly and developed a 20-10 lead by the end of the first quarter. During the second quarter, the Lady Bulldogs slowed down a bit and allowed the Irish to come within five by halftime. The second half was a totally different game as the Bulldogs were out-scored 22-17, and by the end of regulation time the score was tied 45-45. During the first overtime, it seemed inevitable the Bulldogs would not be the victors of this battle. They committed numerous fouls, but Maple Lake was unable to cash in on any of their free throws, and the game was sent into a second overtime. Lieser recorded her fourth double-double of the season as she slammed in 32 points and grabbed 16 rebounds. Paynesville: 20 8 9 8 4 6 - 55 Junior varsity
On Thursday, Dec. 18, the Bulldogs made another trip to Maple Lake to play the Big Lake Hornets, and lost a tough game, 41-59.
Paynesville: 5 15 11 10 - 41
Maple Lake
On Friday, Dec. 19, the Lady Bulldogs played their final game of the tournament in St. Michael-Albertville against the Maple Lake Irish. They came away with a 55-51 double-overtime victory to go 2-3 in the tournament.
Tanya Lieser’s four free throws won the game for the Bulldogs during the second overtime.
Maple Lake: 10 13 15 7 4 2 -51
The junior varsity also participated in the Christmas tournament. They won all of their games and brought home the first place trophy.