Soda Springs Boys Basketball Off To Hot Start

The Cardinal boys basketball team started the 2024-25 basketball season with three games in just five days.  With the shake up to the classification numbers and the district the Cardinals are looking for a fresh start after a somewhat disappointing finish to last season.  The Cardinals challenged themselves early this year with a tough West Jefferson team in the season opener then followed that up with a long two day road trip to play New Plymouth and Parma.  

In the season opener against West Jefferson the Cardinals jumped out to the lead but got into some early foul trouble allowing the game to stay close.  Both McWilliams and Ozburn finished the first quarter with two fouls each and the Panthers went three out of five from the foul line to stay within striking distance.  The quarter finished with Soda Springs leading 12-9.

In the second the three point shot started to fall for both teams.  The play was fast and competitive throughout.  The Cardinals were able to outpace the Panthers in the quarter by four points and their lead grew to a seven point lead.

In the third quarter both offenses came out firing.  A total of seven three point shots were made in the quarter.  Three came from the Panthers while all four of the Cardinals deep shots came from Thompson.  The shootout ended with each team adding twenty points to their totals and saw Soda Springs still holding a seven point lead heading into the final period of play.

In the fourth West Jefferson made a good push to try and close the gap but struggled to get any closer than five points.  The Cardinals let the Panthers hang around by missing several shots from the charity stripe.  Soda Springs shot a subpar four out of ten foul shots in the fourth but managed to do just enough to walk away with a season opening win with a score of 58-53.

Thompson's hot shooting helped boost the team to the win but the surprise play of Billman aided in keeping the game in the Cardinals hands during the fourth quarter.  Many of Billman’s eight points came at crucial moments to go along with some great rebounding.

Following that win the Cardinal men traveled to the Treasure Valley area for their two day road stretch.  They started with taking on New Plymouth.  The Pilgrims boasted some great height but the strength and speed of the Cardinals gave Soda Springs some confidence going into the game.  Once again the outside shooting was falling for the Cardinals hitting three, three point shots to take a first quarter lead of 17-10.

In the second quarter the Cardinals struggled early on committing several turnovers.  Fortunately the Soda Springs defense made up for the shortcomings of the offense.  Hansen was the star of the quarter scoring nine points.  Not only did he score nine in the quarter but he was the only Cardinals to score in the first six and a half minutes of the quarter.  Hansen's good shooting and defense gave Soda a fifteen point advantage at the half. 

In the third quarter the fouls began to add up once again for the Cardinals.  Soda wound up with seven team fouls and were outscored by three in the quarter but still held a commanding lead.

The foul trouble would continue for the Cardinals in the fourth as they racked up six more team fouls giving Thompson, Billman and Stoor four each for the game.  In the end the Cardinal defense did enough to get a big road win 55-38.

Thompson helped lift the team in the first half but this game was a shooting display by Hansen.  Hansen’s only critique would be that he finished the game going a disappointing four for ten from the foul line. 

The Cardinals finished up the busy week by taking on Parma.  The Panthers are new to the Classification moving down from what is 4A this season.  This game was a back and forth battle from start to finish.  After a somewhat slow start the Cardinals finally got things rolling behind the play of Thompson and McWilliams who each finished with seven points in the opening period of play.  

In the second quarter Parma came out as the aggressor and took control of the game.  A fast pace and some pressure defense forced several ill advised shots from the Cardinals.  Soda would end up with only three field goals in the period but would add five points off of seven foul shots.

In the third quarter the shots continued to be off target for the Cardinals during the first few minutes.  After a quick timeout Soda Springs began to play with more urgency.  That led to a fourteen point run coming from five different Cardinals.

The fourth quarter saw some lead changes and the game came down to the wire.  Soda Springs grabbed a three point lead with just over a minute left.  Any thoughts of walking away with a win in the fourth quarter evaporated when Parma tied the game with just over two seconds left on the clock forcing overtime.  In the overtime period the Cardinals would need to lean on what had previously been their weakness of making foul shots.  Soda Springs hit six of eight in the overtime and outscored the Panthers 12-9 to take home the hard fought road win.

The Cardinal men head to Ririe this weekend to play in the Bulldog Shootout.

Cardinals 12 14 20 12 58

Panthers 9 10 20 14 53

K.Kirby 2, C.Thompson 23, G.Hansen 12, K.McWilliams 8, D.Stoor 2, P.Ozburn 2, D.Billman 8

Cardinals 17 12 10 16 55

Pilgrims 10 4 13 11 38

K. Kirby 6, C.Thompson 12, G.Hansen 24, K.McWilliams 9, P.Ozburn 2, C.Jacobson 2

Cardinals 16 11 20 12 12 71

Panthers – – – – 9 68