Lady Cardinals Drop Final Two Games Of The Season

The Soda Springs Lady Cardinals finished off the regular season last week with a pair of district opponents on the road.  The Lady Cardinals started their week at Malad to face the top seeded Lady Dragons.  Few teams have been able to compete with Malad this season and the Lady Cardinals were no different.  Not many expected them to win that game and it went just about as one would expect it to go.  I won’t delve into the specifics of the game but will just say that the Lady Cardinals fought hard but came up short.  The real drama came in their second game of the week and their final regular season game of the year.  That game took place at Aberdeen against the Lady Tigers.  The Lady Cardinals desperately needed the win to earn a good seed in the upcoming district tournament.  As the game tipped off things just were not falling Soda Springs’ way.  The Lady Cardinals struggled to get shots to fall.  Gronning helped keep them in the game with a pair of three point shots but the team as a whole had trouble even from the foul line.  Soda Springs went just three for nine from the line in the first quarter of play.  By the end of the first the Lady Cardinals were trailing by eight.  The second quarter did not change much in the way of the point differential.  As the first half came to a close the Lady Cardinals trailed by nine and had seen Davis leave the game with an injury unsure if she would return.  The third quarter was much the same but did see Davis return to the game and earn her first points.  With just one quarter left in the game the Cardinals still trailed by eight points.  In the fourth quarter the Lady Cardinals defense finally clamped down on the Lady Tigers and the lead began to shrink.  The Cardinals had been able to get within two points in the last two minutes but just could not get over the hump.  Soda Springs had several opportunities to either tie the game or take the lead.  After a late foul shot that extended the lead to three points for the Lady Tigers the Lady Cardinals had one final shot to extend the game.  Gronning’s three point buzzer beater just missed the mark and Soda Springs lost the game by three. 

The loss dashed any hopes of earning a first round bye in the district tournament. The tournament will have started before this article is released.  What we do know is that the Lady Cardinals hosted a first round game in Soda Springs on Tuesday night.  That game was against either West Side or Declo.  While the game will have already been played, check next week’s edition to see how that game ended and where the Lady Cardinals sit in the district tournament. 

Lady Cardinals 11 7 8 10 36

Lady Tigers 19 8 7 5 39

C. Gronning 15, J. Parker 4, E. Wood 4, A. Davis 8, R. Harris 5