Lady Cardinals Struggle In Second Half

The Lady Cardinals kicked off the new year with a road game at Marsh Valley taking on a very good Lady Eagles team.  This was a tough first game back following the holiday break.  The Lady Eagles came into the contest sporting an 11-1 record with their only loss coming in overtime to Preston.  The Lady Cardinals on the other hand have had their fair share of ups and downs this season and would still be without one of their leading scorers Anna Davis who has been temporarily sidelined with an injury.  Despite the odds being against them for this matchup the Lady Cardinals did have some good moments in this game.

As the game got underway it appeared that the two teams had very similar playing styles.  Both teams were very active on defense while applying a full court press.  As one would assume this resulted in several turnovers by each team.  Unfortunately for Soda Springs the Lady Eagles were able to break their press enough times to grab an early lead.  As the first quarter came to a close the Lady Cardinals had only managed to make a pair of baskets and trailed by five points.  In the second quarter the Lady Cardinals showed some signs of life as they were able to quickly erase the deficit and actually take a one point lead.  However, that lead did not last long.  The Lady Eagles once again took control of the game and began to start pulling away.  Some good shooting from Courtnee Gronning which included a last second three pointer brought the Lady Cardinals back into the game once again at the end of the first half.  Going into the break Soda Springs now only trailed by a single point.  Unfortunately that was as close as the Lady Cardinals would get.  In the third quarter the Lady Cardinals only added two points to the board while Marsh Valley scored twelve.  Soda Springs would only do slightly better in the fourth quarter where they were outscored once again twelve to six.  

Only three girls scored for Soda Springs in this game.  Not only were they limited on the number of scorers but Soda Springs struggled to even get shots off.  In other words you can’t score if you don’t shoot.  This is something that I suspect the Lady Cardinals will address and remedy prior to their two tough match ups this week.  The Lady Cardinals will travel to Grace on Wednesday for a rematch of a very entertaining game from earlier this season.  Soda Springs lost that first match up but I could see Wednesday’s game going either way.  Following the tough county rivalry game the Lady Cardinals will host a very good Malad team on Friday.

Cardinals 4 14 2 6 26

Eagles 9 10 12 12 43

C. Gronning 13, M. Kempe 5,
E. Wood 8