The high school boys’ basketball team started their season with practice on Monday, November 13th. With lots of practice time to prepare for their first game against the Northwestern Tigers. They played the Tigers November 30th, on a Thursday. Although they fought hard that night, they lost 52-60. The top scorers of the night being Connor Sorenson with 28 points, Doug Hispher with 10, and Dallas Williams with 8.

Even though the Cardinals took a loss, they had to prepare for another tough game only days away. They hosted the Hurley Midgets on Monday, December 4th. With many close games between Hurley and the Cardinals in the past, the team had to be ready to come out full power. The junior varsity team destroyed the competition leaving the Midgets with little to no chance of redemption. The varsity team stuck to this idea and owned the first half of the game. At one point in the first half, the Midgets were down by almost 20 points. The halftime score ended up being 37-18, with the Cardinals ahead.

The second half was a different story, unfortunately. With many missed free throws and a lot of missed threes, the Cardinals started to lose their major lead. The Hurley Midgets tried their hardest to get the lead but kept coming up a little a short. With an intense crowd roaring and the teams neck and neck, the game was nearly over, but a lot was still to happen. With 56.2 seconds left on the board, the score was 47-44, the Cardinals leading. The Hurley team took a foul and made one free throw bringing the score to 47-45. The Cardinals had the ball on the inbounds next. The Cardinals ran one of their debatably best inbounds play of all, the hail mary. Connor Sorenson, a senior, was inbounding the ball. With no doubt, Connor made a clean pass all the way down the court as Dallas Williams, another senior, sprinted ahead of his defender for the ball. Dallas got the pass and went in for a lay-up as he was fouled and got the “and 1”. The score was now 49-45, with Dallas on the free-throw line. He made his free-throw with ease, bringing the Cardinals to 50 points. With around 20 seconds left, Hurley brought the ball down the court looking to score fast. One of their shooting guards hit a clutch three while being guarded and nearly a foot away from the three-point line. The score was now 50-48. On the next possession, Doug Hipsher was fouled and sadly missed both free throws. The clock was now at 2.4 seconds and the Midgets needed a shot. Thanks to great defense though, the Cardinals did not let them get a shot up and they won the game by a mere two points.

Overall, the game was very exciting to watch. The top scorers for the night were Doug Hipsher with 17 points, Dallas Williams with 15, and Connor Sorenson with 10. This year’s boys’ high school basketball team has lots of potential and will go on to do great things this season! Good luck with the rest of your games boys!