Friday night’s home game ended in a close game with the Varsity Ranger Boys coming up short 71-62 against the Hardin Bulldogs. It was a close game throughout, but the Rangers could not capitalize in the fourth quarter.
Things started out promising for the Rangers in the first quarter with Houston Dunn and Alec Dalby lighting up the scoreboard while the Bulldogs’ shots kept circling the rim. At the end of the quarter, the Rangers lead 19-13. This feeling would not last forever and by halftime the Rangers trailed the Bulldogs 34-29.
All hope was not lost as the Rangers clawed their way back into it and made it a three-point game halfway through the fourth quarter, but fouls and turnovers proved to be to costly for the Varsity Boys.
Park High’s leading scorer Dunn had a few things to say after the game. He expressed great emotion when he stated “I think everyone on the team understood how important a win against this Bulldog team would be. That’s why we all gave it everything that we had, especially in the fourth quarter.”
This is a team that looked like they had something to prove when they stepped onto the court, but credit cannot be taken away from Hardin as they simply were expected by many to win this game, but they weren’t expecting it to be so tough. What could be a huge factor in the Rangers’ loss to the Bulldogs was the fact that they lost two of their star players, Houston Dunn and Alec Dalby, after they fouled out in the fourth quarter.
Fouls and turnovers would prove to be the Achilles heel to the Rangers, especially in the fourth quarter. Either way, one can be very proud of how both teams performed. This was a tightly contested game and was a close one all the way into the final minutes of the game.