(Park Hills, MO) The tenth seeded DeSoto Dragons upset the seven seed Ste Genevieve Dragons in a close 56-48 battle of the Dragons. The upset was just the second thus far in the tournament.
The first half was back and forth with more than one lead change. Neither Dragons’ squad could start a run to create much of a score gap as the first half ended 31-21. The matchup didn’t separate in the second half either, with DeSoto scoring just one more point than Ste Genevieve in the third. Ste Genevieve outscored DeSoto in the fourth quarter, but only by three – not enough to close the gap.
DeSoto was led by a large offensive output from Evan McClinton. He put up 26 points and went 9 for 11 at the free-throw line. McClinton was joined in double digit scoring by Cole McClinton (14p, 71% FG) and Aidyn Mitchell (10p). Devin Flye put up 14 points for Ste Genevieve.
DeSoto will play the South Iron Panthers in the quarterfinal round on Thursday, Dec. 28 at 7pm and Ste Genevieve will play Perryville in the consolation bracket on Thursday at 10am.
