On Friday, Jan. 8, the Paynesville Bulldogs took on the Albany Huskies in what would turn out to be a great game in the WCCN with the Bulldogs winning 61-59.In the first quarter, the Bulldogs jumped ahead early with the first six points. By the end of the quarter, Paynesville had a four-point lead.
In the second quarter, the Huskies sparked back with Ross Denne hitting a couple of three pointers.
Paynesville stayed right with the Huskies though, with the score all tied up at 25 points a piece at halftime.
In the third quarter, they played well on both sides of the floor catching breaks here and there. Both teams also had two of their big men each in foul trouble, which kept them to somewhat limited playing time.
Paynesville’s Matt Carstens hit three, three pointers in the quarter.
The Bulldogs came out ahead by two p
oints at the end of this grueling third quarter, 44-42.
The fourth quarter on a Friday night is one of the best atmospheres to play in with your home crowd cheering you on. This is what it came down to at the end of this incredible game. Paynesville waited until the very last seconds to put this game away. Albany had their chances to put the game away but just couldn’t do it. Paynesville squeeked out a win 61-59 at home.
Albany: 6 19 17 17 - 59
Paynesville: 10 15 19 17 - 61
Montevideo
The Paynesville boy’s basketball team traveled to Montevideo for their first game after the Christmas break. It was a great win, 55-49, in overtime for the Bulldogs.
In the first quarter, Paynesville wasn’t quite ready for the type of play the referees were going to referee. The referees must have thought it was football season because there were sometimes when even a tackle was legal.
Once the Bulldogs got the hint that this was going to be more than a physical type of game, they did a decent enough job to put the game back within their reach.
By the end of the second quarter, Paynesville was only down by two points (21-19) and filled with rage.
The Bulldogs decided that since their head coach wasn’t present, because of an unexpected back surgery, and because they didn’t want to take a long trip home with a loss, something needed to happen.
In the third quarter, Paynesville went ahead with Brent Heinen (pictured above dishing the ball) hitting two consecutive three pointers.
Montevideo fought back in the fourth quarter to put the game into overtime.
By this time most of Paynesville’s fans, players, and coaches were sick of the bad calls.
The overtime period belonged to Paynesville from the opening tip off. The Bulldogs jumped ahead quickly and never looked back. Paynesville went into a spread offense where they gave Jones the ball. Jones scored the first six points, and the fat lady had finally sung, as the Bulldogs won in overtime 55-49.
Montevideo: 11 10 9 15 4 - 49
Paynesville: 11 8 12 14 10 - 55