Lady Cardinals Win On Senior Night

The Lady Cardinals celebrated their three senior basketball players while picking up a conference win and securing the number two seed in this week’s district tournament.  Last Friday’s game against Aberdeen began with the three senior girls being escorted onto the court by their parents.  This year’s seniors included two of the team’s top players in Abby Goodin and Gracie Moldenhauer as well as Cate Walker who was sidelined this season due to injury but filled in as team manager.  All three seniors were announced as starters for the Lady Cardinals and all three took the court to start the game.  Because of her injury Walker would not remain in the game following the opening tip.  It was prearranged that Soda Springs would win the tip unchallenged by the Tigers and the Cardinals would take the ball out of bounds creating a deadball for Walker to sub out.  It was an emotional scene and a heartbreaking way for a senior to end their career but she left the court to a round of applause and embraces from her teammates.  Unfortunately the senior disappointments would not end there as the game got rolling.  Goodin would get into early foul trouble and have to spend most of the first half on the bench while Moldenhauer would struggle to get any shots to fall.  By the time the halftime buzzer sounded the two seniors had only accounted for two made foul shots between them.  The struggles did not end with the seniors however.  In the first match up of the season the Cardinals had easily dispatched the Tigers winning by twenty points.  This time around the scrappy Aberdeen team refused to go away.  After one quarter of play the Lady Cardinals led by just a single point.  Through the second period of play the Cardinals continued to struggle to shake the Tigers.  Both teams played very physically.  Every loose ball saw girls scrambling to the ground battling for control.  As a result the fouls began to rack up sending each team to the foul line multiple times.  When the half came to a close the Cardinals still clung to just a one point lead.  The third quarter saw very little improvement for Soda Springs.  The Lady Cardinals only added one more point to their lead but did begin to see more production from their leading scorers in Goodin, Moldenhauer, and Gronning.  That production continued for the Cardinals in the fourth quarter.  Soda Springs finally gained some breathing room and pulled away in the end to get the win by eight.  After only scoring two points in the first half the trio of Goodin, Moldenhauer, and Gronning put up twenty six second half points.

With the win the Lady Cardinals secured the number two seed in the district tournament earning a first round bye along with number one seed Malad.  The Lady Cards will await the winner of the three/six between West Side and Declo.  Soda Springs will host the round two game at the Birds Nest on Thursday.

Cardinals 12 10 14 16 52

Tigers 11 10 13 10 44

J.Rasussen 4, C.Gronning 9, R.Harris 10, M.Kempe 5, A.Goodin 5, G.Moldenhauer 14, E.Wood 3, H.Mumford 2