Paynesville has not won the district championship in boys basketball since 1941.
Annandale
The first half was a back and forth battle with the Bulldogs going into halftime trailing by one.
At the end of the third quarter, the two teams were tied 26-26.
In the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs played excellent defense and were very patient on offense. This helped the Bulldogs beat the Annandale Cardinals, 54-50.
Ross Jenniges of the Bulldogs had an outstanding night scoring 20 points with his three pointer in the third quarter.
After the game was over and the game was won, all the players and fans came to the court jumping and screaming. This was a great win for the Bulldogs.
Annandale :12 6 8 24 - 50
Paynesville: 5 12 9 28 - 54
Kimball
On March 5, the Bulldogs hosted the Kimball Cubs. The Bulldogs were playing the Cubs for the third time this season. It was the first game of the playoffs and the Bulldogs knew it was not going to be an easy task to defeat them a third time.
By the end of the first half, Paynesville was leading the Cubs by five points.
In the second half, the Bulldogs would go ahead by nine or 10 points and the Cubs would always battle back until they were within four or five points. Paynesville could never really pull away and stay there.
Finally, at the end of the game, Paynesville started holding the ball and Kimball was forced to foul. The Bulldogs finished the game on the free throw line but not before one last scare by the Cubs. With less than 20 seconds to go, Kimball had the ball on their end of the court down by three points. They had two different opportunities to score but failed both times.
Joe Bergstrom had a record tying game with an amazing 12 assists.
Paynesville: 12 14 19 14 - 59
Kimball: 7 14 15 18 - 54