3rd Quarter Defense Vaults Lady Cards To Victory

A bit of a slow start for the Lady Cardinals in their only game last week saw them in a tight battle during the first quarter of play.  Soda Springs were on the road at Declo to take on the Hornets.  Having beaten the Hornets by nearly twenty at home the Lady Cardinals may have overlooked Declo a little at the start of this game.  The Cardinals put on a full court press to start the game off.  The Hornets seemed to be prepared for this and managed to break the press several times leading to easy buckets.  On the flip side the Cardinals were able to move the ball with relative ease on offense but the larger Hornet defenders left very few openings to get good shots off.  Declos was able to edge out to a small lead for much of the quarter.  The Cardinals stayed persistent with their press and were eventually able to make a push to finish the quarter with the score being even.  

In the second quarter the Soda Springs press really began to pay off and the Cardinals started off on a ten point run.  With the Cardinals picking up the pace of the game the Hornets began to get behind defensively, sending Soda to the foul line several times.  Despite the free shots and the early advantage the Cardinals finished the last two minutes of the half getting outscored six to three.  Soda Springs still held the lead by seven but a poor performance from the charity stripe where the Cardinals were just eight for nineteen in the half kept the game closer than it should have been.

In the third quarter the Cardinals finally opened the game up due in large part to their defense.  Creating several turnovers with hustle plays the Cardinals held the Hornets to just two points in the quarter while adding thirteen to their own total.  

In the fourth quarter the Cardinals biggest lead extended to eighteen points.  The large cushion on the scoreboard was beneficial for Soda Springs as the Cardinals shooting got a little cold at the start.  During the cold spell the Hornets made a run of their own and cut the lead to ten points at the midway point of the quarter.  Lucky for Soda Springs the shooting heated back up for two of their players.  Goodin and Moldenhauer would each finish the quarter with six points that included three three pointers.  The Cardinals finished this game off with a fifteen point win.  Abby Goodin led the way for the Cardinals scoring in every quarter of the game.  Despite the big win the Cardinals did finish the game with work to be done at the foul line.  The second half did not see improvement in that aspect as Soda Springs went just three for nine finishing the game with just a thirty-nine percent from the foul line.  

The end of the regular season is quickly approaching for the Lady Cardinals.  Wednesday they will face Malad who sit in first place in the conference and the state.  Malad is also the only district opponent to beat the Cardinals this season.  After the trip to Malad on Wednesday Soda Springs will host Aberdeen for senior night on Friday.  

Cardinals 11 13 13 12 49

Hornets 11 6 2 15 34

J.Rasmussen 4, C.Gronning 5, R.Harris 4, A.Goodin 21, G.Moldenhauer 14, H.Mumford 1