Lady Cardinals Fly Past West Side

Last week the Lady Cardinals squared off with the Lady Pirates in a classic fifth district showdown inside the Birds Nest in Soda Springs.  The game was physical and entertaining from beginning to end.  Very early on in the game one of the Lady Cardinals leading scorers Anna Davis would leave with an injury following a hard collision under the basket.  This put added pressure on the other Lady Cardinal players to step up to fill the scoring void left by Davis’s absence.  As it would turn out, scoring points would not have as big of an impact on the game as the Lady Cardinals high pressure defense would.  Soda Springs relentless full court pressure has become their calling card as of late and has proven to be effective.  In the first quarter of play the Lady Cardinals put up a modest ten points but the impressive feat was holding the Lady Pirates completely scoreless in that same span.  In the second period of play the Lady Cardinals faced some struggles.  Soda Springs had a difficult time finding clean looks at shots and when they did get open shots the ball wasn’t falling for them.  The Lady Pirates were also able to combat the press a little better.  This resulted in West Side outscoring the Lady Pirates in the second period of play cutting into the Lady Cardinals ten point lead.  At the halftime break Soda Springs now led by just six points.  In the third period of play the Lady Pirates continued to battle back into the game keeping the pressure on.  It was during this stretch that Soda Springs senior Courtnee Gronning, as she had done many times this season, took the game into her own hands.  Gronning put up eleven points by herself, outscoring the entire West Side team in the quarter by a single point.  The Lady Cardinals now led by nine points going into the fourth quarter and they would not look back.  Another senior Rosie Harris stepped up adding six points for Soda Springs as the Lady Cardinals pulled away for the victory.  Though it is still early in conference play the win over the Lady Pirates gives the Lady Cardinals a 3-0 record in the district which currently puts them in first place.  However still on the schedule is the top ranked team in the state Malad as well as rematches with West Side and Wendell that will be tough games.  Before the Lady Cardinals get back into district play they will play a pair of tough non conference teams.  They will have two short road trips to Marsh Valley and Grace before returning home to face Malad on January 9th. 

In addition to beating West Side last week the Lady Cardinals also traveled to American Falls and Ririe.  Due to a very busy schedule last week I failed to get any stats or info on those games other than the final scores.  Both games were rematches of games that Soda Springs played earlier this season.  In both cases the end result was the same as the first meeting with Soda Springs beating American Falls but losing to Ririe.  Though the results were the same, the Lady Cardinals were able to increase their margin of victory over American Falls as well as decrease the margin of loss to Ririe.

I said it last week and I will say it again the Lady Cardinals are a different team the past two weeks and what they lack in size they make up for in speed and tenacity.

Cardinals 10 4 13 8 35

Pirates 0 8 10 4 22

C. Gronning 19, R. Harris 7, M. Kempe 1, J. Tingey 2, E. Wood 2, D. Frandsen 4

Cardinals 42

Beavers 21

Cardinals 31

Bulldogs 45