Cardinals Dominate The Bears

n their lone game last week the Soda Springs Cardinals boys basketball team made the short trip over Georgetown Summit to take on the Bear Lake Bears.  If you are a Soda Springs fan this was a very fun game to watch.  Throughout the course of the game eleven different players saw playing time, with nine of those players notching points on the stat sheet.  

The leaders would lead by showing moments of brilliance and the bench would get their moments to show what they could do.  All in all it was a complete game from a talented team.  That being said, the game did get off to a slow start.  The Bears were able to keep things close and at one point the game was tied at eight points a piece.  In the closing couple of minutes of the quarter the Cardinals began to warm up, and as the time ran out Soda Springs held a six point lead.  

The second quarter started a little sloppy but the Cardinals stayed composed and started to pour it on.  By the time the halftime buzzer sounded, the Cardinals had a double digit lead that they would not relinquish for the remainder of the game.  In the third quarter, the Cardinals scoring exploded and the team looked like a well oiled
machine.  

Cooper Thompson and Gavin Hansen put on a clinic as they appeared to be able to score at will while also distributing the ball to teammates.  While Thompson and Hansen may have been leading the team, every player that touched the court made terrific plays that were not only incredible in terms of athleticism but also showcased the team’s basketball knowledge.  Several impressive heady plays were made during this stretch while very few mistakes were made.  

The Cardinals built the lead to near twenty points in the third quarter and looked very calm and collected in doing so.  The Bears made a valiant effort in the fourth quarter, scoring an impressive eighteen points of their own but the way the Cardinals were playing that night there was little they could do to get back into this game.  The Cardinals matched the Bears’ eighteen points plus one as they cruised to a twenty two point victory.  Not to be overshadowed by the aforementioned Thompson and Hansen fellow senior guard Preston Ozburn added fourteen points of his own in the game twelve of which came from four three point shots.  

With Ozburn making incredible strides other teams will be hard pressed deciding which of the three quick hot handed guards they should try to shut down.  Not only that but the balanced Cardinals still have the lanky Mellor and the powerful McWilliams down low.  With a bench that proved they can step in and not just hold spots but contribute I am still very high on this team as they go forward in the season.

The Cardinals have just two games remaining before the holiday break.  They will travel to West Jefferson on Friday night, a place they have struggled in the past, before coming back home to play a rare Monday night game against this same Bears team on the twenty-second.

Cardinals 14 16 24 19 73

Bears 8 11 14 18 51

K. Peterson 2, C. Thompson 27, G. Hansen 14, K. McWilliams 6, L. Mellor 2, P. Ozburn 14, J. Horsley 2, L. Martinsen 2, K. Harrison 4