A little early Christmas present, courtesy of the Cardinal girls’ basketball team!
Tuesday night, ’twas another big game against a team, the Albany Huskies, deemed to be a major challenger for the section title this year. Though the Huskies came in rated above us in the current state rankings, our Cards blistered them with an outstanding first half on the way to . . . another statement win?
[Oh, you already know this.]
[As always, we arrived early to see how the JV was doing. Well, the team was having a huddle.]
[We have a plethora of number 5’s – I believe this is Ellie Ronning. And she’s playing ‘D’ with Alayna Aanerud (3). The entire JV team are sophomores.]
[Alayna wrapped up the game with a couple of free throw attempts . . .]
[The team did quite well, thank you very much.]
[The warm-up player of the game is Brooke Heggie (45), senior center. She had to take a break for the captains’ pre-game meeting with the refs. How fortuitous a choice it turned out to be. I thought Brooke played her best game ever as a Cardinal. 🙂 ]
[Local media prepares for what I believe leaves Dave with only three games left to broadcast.]
[The internationally-known Cardinal grandparents were once again at the game, appearing with the head coach in the top photo.]
[Pre-game rituals which will become the topic of discussion among future anthropologists.]
[Macy’s mom and Kendall’s mom.]
[This involved a sleight-of-hand generally associated with secret societies . . . or just having fun!]
[Basketball fans will recognize this as a jump ball, a/k/a, the opening tip. The start of Brooke’s big night.]
[Kendall (3) at the point on ‘D.’]
[Emma Ziegler (1) was back and starting after rolling her ankle before game two.]
[Macy (11) on top, Emma passes to the corner.]
[Hustling back on defense . . . or why we win.]
[Macy and Kendall looking to get in the passing lanes.]
[Group session.]
[Again accenting the defense.]
[Coffee break.]
[Kelby Olson-Rodel (13), sophomore, a good athlete who’s seeing more and more playing time.]
[Kelby applying in-your-face defense.]
[I shot a ball into the air, it fell to earth I know not where?]
[Cheyenne Hendrickson (55), senior, anchors the half-court defense.]
[Kendall setting the offense.]
[Kohler shouts, “Don’t you block my daughter!” This was the key match-up all night, Kendall on the Huskies’ point guard, Sidney Schiffler (24), who is their star player. Kendall is prone to foul trouble, but she did a great job defensively on this night.]
[Kiyana Miller (21), sophomore, leads Cheyenne and Brooke back on defense.]
[Kendall tracking Schiffler.]
[The half ends, our best of the year. The Huskies were 14 – 14 from the free throw line in the half. Obviously, they can shoot. We didn’t let them shoot much from the floor. And we must have shot over 50% per cent from the floor, with 3’s from Kendall, Macy, Brooke, and Gretchen Revering (25), senior, came in to swish a long one. Now you can look at the video at the top for the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half – true, Kendall bricked a 3 in the video, but she also drained a howitzer from about 5-feet beyond the line.]
[Local talent scouts file their reports . . .]
[The Huskies made a run in the 2nd half, as we knew they would. The Cards were in foul trouble and played a little softer on defense. If you’re not in their face, they make the shots. But the Cards closed it out as a good team should. Protecting the ball, no turnovers when we were running out the clock, and making our free throws down the stretch (I believe we were 11 – 12 in the 2nd half). And in the final photo, the ball simply disappears?]
Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult. ~ Charlotte Whitton, on becoming mayor of Ottawa
Up next: Decisions, decisions? On Friday night we have this (Voice of Alexandria Facebook) . . .
or this . . .
Fiddlin’ Sami Steidl, our first Alexandria wunderkind, is home for the holidays and playing with Cimarron at SAWA. Gotta find a way to do both! 🙂
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