Tough Road Trip For The Lady Cards

In what is becoming an annual tradition, the Soda Springs Lady Cardinals traveled across the state last week to face a pair of district three opponents.  The road trip provided the Cardinals with the opportunity to see some teams that they typically would not see unless they faced off at state.  On this year’s trip the Lady Cardinals took on the Parma Lady Panthers and the Melba Lady Mustangs.  The games took place on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.  The two day road trip was a challenging one for Soda Springs.

The Lady Cardinals started the weekend at Parma in front of a rowdy home student section.  The challenge of a boisterous crowd was minimal compared to the size advantage that the Lady Panthers held over the Lady Cardinals.  The Lady Cardinals struggled to gain any traction under the basket going up against the taller team and their outside shooting was not falling for them.  The Lady Panthers cleaned up on the glass early on and when the first quarter came to a close Soda Springs trailed by eight.  In the second quarter the Lady Cardinals went to their strengths and began putting full court pressure on the ball.  The increased defensive pressure combined with a better shooting quarter resulted in the Cardinals making some headway in getting back into the game.  At the halftime break the Cardinals had cut the eight point deficit to five.  In the third quarter of play the two teams played to a draw each scoring eight points and the Panthers held their five point lead.  As the fourth quarter got underway the Panthers created some space when they hit some quick three point shots.  The Cardinals continued to play aggressive but could not overcome the hot shooting by the Panthers.  The good shooting didn’t just come from the floor for the Panthers.  Parma was perfect from the charity stripe going eight for eight.  Conversely the Lady Cardinals struggled from the foul line.  Despite getting to the line seventeen times, Soda was only able to put in seven of those shots.  In the end the Panthers pulled away winning by fifteen points.

Less than twenty four hours later the Lady Cardinals were back on the court this time in Melba.  The Lady Cardinals matched up much better against the Lady Mustangs.  The two teams were very similar in size and style of play and the scoring was a direct reflection of that.  After the first quarter the teams were separated by just a single point.  In the second quarter of play things got a tad sloppy with several turnovers and fouls by each team.  The offenses sputtered and the teams went to the halftime break still just separated by a single point with the Lady Mustangs leading seventeen to sixteen.  The teams continued to play a tight game in the third quarter.  The Lady Cardinals did finally grab an advantage in the third with four different girls scoring and took a three point lead.  In the fourth quarter the game got ugly again.  The low scoring affair continued and when the buzzer sounded at the end of regulation the teams were all tied up forcing an overtime period.  In the overtime period the teams continued to rack up the turnovers and failed to capitalize on those turnovers.  Each team only managed to make one basket in the overtime period and once again they were tied.  In the second overtime period the Lady Mustangs broke loose and scored six quick points.  Despite the Cardinals best efforts they just could not get the shots to fall for them and the struggles from the foul line returned as well.  In the two overtime periods the Cardinals were just three for eight from the foul line.  In the final sixteen minutes of game time the Lady Cardinals only scored five total points.  The Lady Cardinals lost a tough double overtime game by seven points.

Earlier this week the Lady Cardinals hosted the Lady Grizzlies from Grace in a cross county rivalry game.  That game had not yet taken place at the time of the writing of this article.  Check out next week’s edition to see how that game turned out.

Cardinals 5 13 8 12 38

Panthers 13 10 8 22 53

C.Gronning 16, A.Davis 7, R.Harris 10, T.Tingey 3, E.Wood 2

Cardinals 8 8 11 1 2 2 32

Mustangs 9 8 7 4 2 9 39

C.Gronning 3, A.Davis 14, R.Harris 5, E.Wood 6, M.Kempe 1, J.Parker 3