Photo by Brennen Rupp YME’s Meeghen Dahlager drives past a Dawson-Boyd defender during their game on Thursday. The Sting defeated the Blackjacks 59-52.

DAWSON – The Dawson-Boyd Blackjacks ran out of time on Thursday evening. The Blackjacks trailed Yellow Medicine East, 54-34 with under seven minutes to play. The Blackjacks outscored the Sting 18-5 in the final seven minutes, but their comeback bid came up just short as they fell 59-52.

“I think the pressure hurt us a little bit,” YME assistant coach, Kristi Klassen said. “We weren’t expecting that. I think we made some poor choices passing the basketball. We didn’t take care of the basketball. We could not rebound. I think the rebounding and giving them second, third and fourth chances just killed us. With our size we expect to dominate the boards, and that did not happen.”

Dawson-Boyd’s Avery Bartunek recorded a triple-double for the Blackjacks in the loss. The sophomore guard finished with 11 points, 12 assists, 10 steals and seven rebounds.

“YME has a huge height advantage on us, we had to start being super disciplined on both offense and defense. On offense we had to be very patient with our shot selection. On defense we had to be very active in the passing lanes so they couldn’t get it to their bigs.”

The Blackjacks outrebounded the Sting, 38-35. With the Sting having a size advantage inside Klassen said her team didn’t do a good enough job of boxing out.

“We do not box out very well,” Klassen said. “We don’t hang onto the ball very well. We have these big kids with size, but they can’t figure out. We can’t hold onto the basketball. It’s something we have to work on.”

The first eight minutes of the game had five lead changes and two ties. With the Blackjacks holding an 8-7 lead the Sting went on a 8-0 run to take a 15-10 lead, a lead they’d never relinquish.

With the Sting holding a 17-12 lead they went on a 7-0 run to open up a 24-12 lead. Klassen said her team did a good job of getting out in running in the first half.

“I think our transition game was really positive,” Klassen said. “That’s what got us to lead. We pushed the ball up the court. Our pressure didn’t necessarily cause a lot of turnovers, but it caused some problems.”

A Bartunek three-pointer stopped YME’s run to make it a 24-15 game. Another Bartunek basket trimmed YME’s lead to 24-17. A Madison Hinz three-pointer put the Sting back up by double digits, 27-17. At the half the Sting led the Blackjacks 31-21.

Mary Bothun opened the scoring for the Blackjacks in the second half to make it a 31-23 game. Anna McCosh answered with a bucket of her own to put the Sting back up by 10.

A McCosh three-point play put the Sting up 38-26. A Kaitlyn Mortenson three-pointer put YME up 41-28.

Mackenzie Dyrdahl put the Sting up 54-34 with less than seven minutes to play. That’s when the Blackjacks went on a 12-0 run to cut AMY’s lead to 54-46.

A Gionna Parsa three-pointer cut YME’s lead to 56-51 with less than two minutes to play. Unfortunately that would be Dawson-Boyd’s last field goal of the game as they fell 59-52.

The Sting had four players reach double figures. Dyrdahl led the way with 16 points and nine rebounds. Mortenson finished with 12 points. Hanna Gullickson scored 11 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked six shots. Madison Hinz scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds.

Alex Sather led the way for the Blackjacks with 16 points. Sather also grabbed nine rebounds. Mary Bothun recorded a double-double, scoring 13 points and grabbing 15 rebounds.

With the win the Sting 11-4 and extended their winning streak to six games. They’ll be back in action on Monday against BOLD.

The loss dropped the Blackjacks to 5-10. They’ve now lost six straight games and will look to get back into the win column on Monday against Hancock.

“The past couple of weeks have been very tough, as we’ve played some ranked teams,” Bartunek said. “I think we just need to keep our heads up and have some confidence in our game. We need to minimize our turnovers.”

YME 31 28 — 59

DB 21 31 — 52

YELLOW MEDICINE EAST: Mortenson 5-9 0-1 12, A. McCosh 3-9 3-3 9, Hinz 4-12 0-0 11, Dyrdahl 6-13 4-5 16, Gullickson 5-8 1-2 11. TOTALS: 23-55 8-11 59.

DAWSON-BOYD: Parsa 3-9 0-0 9, Bothun 6-10 1-3 13, Sather 8-29 0-0 16, Bartunek 4-10 2-6 11, Wyum 1-6 0-0 3. TOTALS: 22-72 3-9 52.

3-POINTERS: Yellow Medicine East 5-13 (Hinz 3-7, Mortenson 2-5); Dawson-Boyd 5-30 (Parsa 3-9, Bartunek 1-3, Wyum 1-5). REBOUNDS: Yellow Medicine East 35 (Dyrdahl 9, A. McCosh 8); Dawson-Boyd 38 (Bothun 15, Bartunek 7). ASSISTS: Yellow Medicine East 14 (Dahlager 5, Anderson 4); Dawson-Boyd 15 (Bartunek 12). STEALS: Yellow Medicine East 8 (A. McCosh 3); Dawson-Boyd 15 (Bartunek 10). BLOCKS: Yellow Medicine East 7 (Gullickson 6); Dawson-Boyd 1 (Bartunek 1). FOULS: Yellow Medicine East 12; Dawson-Boyd 15. TURNOVERS: Yellow Medicine East 19; Dawson-Boyd 16.