The energy was electric in the gym Tuesday night as the student section and community showed their support for the seven seniors on the Cardinals basketball teams on senior night.
“Having a bunch of people out supporting us all the time is special,” senior Cole Parker said. “It gets us going every game.”
As the only senior on the girls’ team, Sawyer Schreiner said she wanted to show out for senior night.
“I’m going to go all out and just give my best effort, and try not to foul out,” Schreiner said about her mindset for the game. “I was very happy with my performance.”
The Cardinals boys basketball team used that energy to power themselves to a 68-32 win against Louisburg. Their record now stands at 15-3 with two games remaining in the regular season.
It was a physical, back-and-forth contest in the first quarter. The Cardinals knew coming into this game that it was going to be a challenge to limit the size and length of Louisburg down low.
“It’s hard to take away when they have that much size on us at different spots,” head coach Kyle Deterding said. “We did a pretty good job at limiting touches.”
The team’s offense hit its stride in the second quarter behind two 3-pointers from senior Kale Hammerschmidt. The Cardinals took a 38-19 lead going into halftime.
Hammerschmidt was the team’s leading scorer going into halftime with 10 points.
The offensive onslaught continued out of the locker room as the Cardinals outscored the Wildcats 20-5 behind three buckets from downtown by Parker.
The running clock was on by the time the fourth quarter came along to cap off another dominating Cardinals win. This was the fourth game in a row that the defense has smothered their opponents and held them to fewer than 35 points.
“The guys communicated well and get after it for the most part,” Deterding said about his team’s defensive performance. “It’s tough for the other teams when our guys are competing like that because we’re not giving them too many easy looks.”
The Cardinals girls basketball team battled with Louisburg throughout the night, but fell just short by the score of 38-34 to drop their record to 6-12.
Despite losing their sixth straight, the team felt Tuesday night’s game was the best they have played in a long time.
“We definitely put a lot of effort into this game compared to other games,” Schreiner said. “I just really liked the effort tonight.”
Schreiner provided a big spark for the Cardinals as she led the team in scoring with 13 points.
The team played with a lot of energy throughout the game, specifically on defense. Head coach Brandon Parker said this may have been the result of mixing things up on that side of the ball.
“We were switching a lot more than we normally do,” Parker said. “And I thought that helped our communication on the court, which then picked up the energy. I think our defensive energy to the game then brought energy to the crowd and that’s something that we have been missing.”
The Cardinals didn’t allow any points for the first five minutes of the game, but the team couldn’t find momentum on offense to build an early lead as they trailed 20-13 at halftime.
After the break, the Cardinals came out scorching hot and started the third quarter on a 9-0 run.
“We were in it just as much as we were from the beginning of the game and we could totally come back,” junior Kenzie Yoder said. “We just had the mindset that we were going to come out and get it back.”
Yoder contributed four points to the Cardinal run and finished the game with nine points.
Louisburg, however, started to steal momentum from the Cardinals in the fourth quarter as they hit two 3-pointers early in the final frame to give themselves a six-point cushion.
The Cardinals tried to claw their way back as Yoder converted a basket while drawing a foul and junior Parker Long hit a 3-pointer with about 45 seconds left.
There just wasn’t enough time in the game for the Cardinals to complete the comeback as they had to foul to extend the game and Louisburg would make their free throws.
“Even though it was a fast-paced game, we were still under control mentally,” Schreiner said. “And even though we still lost, I thought we put our best effort into the fourth quarter.”
Parker said he was happy the team played freely against Louisburg.
With sub-state looming right around the corner, Cole Parker said the team will be ready for whoever, whenever.
“We’re always going to be confident in ourselves,” he said. “Whoever we get we’re gonna play to the best of our ability and compete.”
As for the girls, Brandon Parker said he hopes the team can keep playing loose and battling.
“At sub-state, everyone is 0-0,” Parker said. “And right now, we’ll be the underdog. So let’s go out and battle. Let’s see what happens.”
The teams will be on the road against Spring Hill Friday.
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