Cardinals Earn Senior Night Win And Begin Tournament Play

The Soda Springs Cardinals wrapped up their regular season last Tuesday celebrating their seniors as they took on Aberdeen.  Prior to the game starting Soda Springs celebrated their senior pep band, dance, cheer and boys basketball members.  Each of the seniors were escorted onto the court by their parents and cheered on by the crowd.

Following honoring the seniors we got right into the game.  The Cardinals entered the final regular season game with only three conference losses while the Tigers entered the game with just three total wins on the year with only one of those coming in conference play.  The Cardinals were set up to be heavy favorites in the game but the Tigers would not go down easy.  Aberdeen played scrappy against the Cardinals all night long coming up with several steals and doing their best to keep the game close.  The quick and athletic Cardinals struggled to get into their normal flow and were not able to create much separation early on.  After one quarter the Cardinals only led by one and at the halftime break Soda Springs held just a small four point lead.  In the third quarter Cooper Thompson got hot from outside putting in three shots from beyond the arc but the Tigers continued to hang around.  At the end of the third period Soda Springs was able to add some to their lead but Aberdeen was still in striking distance now trailing by seven.  In the fourth period Aberdeen kept the pressure on.  The Cardinals had to battle hard to try to keep the lead.  The Tigers went on to outscore the Cardinals in the final stanza but Soda Springs was able to escape with a four point victory over the bottom team in the conference.

Following the near stumble Soda Springs began district tournament play.  Despite having earned wins over every team in the conference with the exception of the number one seeded Declo Hornets the Cardinals would go in as the number four seed.  This seeding was due to an agreement within the conference that stated since Wendell would not be playing every district opponent twice during the season that the tournament seeding would be based on maxpreps rankings.  This meant that even though Soda Springs had earned wins over both the number two and three seeds they would have to settle for the fourth seed.  Declo the number one seed and West Side the number two seed received first round byes.  This left the number three seed Wendell hosting the number six seed Aberdeen and Soda Springs the number four seed hosting the number five seed Malad.  The Cardinals match up very favorably with the Dragons.  Just a week prior to hosting Malad the Cardinals traveled to Malad winning in a blowout where they held the Dragons to just six second half points.

Eager to get over their underwhelming performance against Aberdeen and wanting to put on a show in game one of the tournament the Cardinals were firing on all cylinders right out of the gates.  The Cardinals bested the Dragons by ten points in each of the first two quarters to take a twenty point lead into the halftime break.  In the third period the scoring slowed way down and things may have gotten a little sloppy at times nevertheless the Cardinals still built on their lead and entered the fourth quarter up by twenty four points.  In the fourth quarter the Cardinals let off the throttle and coasted to an easy first round victory.  All fifteen Soda Springs players that were dressed got to see some court time in the win.

The round one win earned the Cardinals a road trip to Declo.  The Hornets have remained unscathed in district play but the Cardinals have played them tough in the last six quarters between the teams.  I’m sure Soda Springs would have preferred to be the number two or three seed and avoided seeing the Hornets until the championship but to win the title you will have to beat them at some point.  That round two match up will have taken place on Tuesday night.  If the Cardinals won that game they will have qualified for the state tournament and earned a spot in the district championship.  A loss in that game will send them to the consolation side of the bracket and have them hosting Aberdeen on Thursday night.  A loss to Declo will not eliminate the Cardinals from the state tournament but the road does get harder and longer.  Check out next week’s edition to see how the Cardinals have fared and where they stand in making it to state.

Cardinals 9 15 15 9 48

Tigers 8 12 12 12 44

C.Jacobson 2, C.Thompson 21, G.Hansen 9, K.McWilliams 8,
P.Ozburn 2, D.Billman 6

Cardinals 16 19 8 9 52

Dragons 6 9 4 8 27

K.Kirby 4, C.Thompson 15, G.Hansen 13, K.McWilliams 9, P.Ozburn 8, D.Billman 2, K.Harrison 1