On Jan. 12th, the high school girls’ basketball team traveled to Hurley to play the Midgets. This was the second time the Cardinals faced the Midgets in the regular season. The last time they played Hurley was during Christmas break. The Cardinals battled with the Midgets for their first game of the Washburn Holiday Classic on Thursday, Dec. 28th. The Cardinals fought hard with the Midgets, only down by three points at halftime, 24-27. In the second half, the Cardinals had to play even harder after falling behind, at one point, by more than 10 points. The Cardinals eventually did catch up to the Midgets, but they could not seal the deal. Flirting with foul trouble, the Cardinals gave up some free throws within the final moments of the game, allowing Hurley to take the win, 52-46.

Since the game in Washburn was considered a home game for the Cardinals, they traveled over an hour and a half to Hurley. The Cardinals had one goal in mind on the way to Hurley: redemption. The team knew they could beat the Midgets and committed to proving themselves. The first half of the game was low scoring with both teams playing great defense. Again, the Cardinals saw a deficit on the scoreboard, 19-22. The Cardinals knew they could not fall behind in the second half. There wasn’t much scoring again because of great defense, causing both teams to have very close scores. Myla Lahti, a junior, helped the Cardinals to stay close with the Midgets hitting four three-pointers during the game.

With a quickly dwindling 20 seconds left on the clock, the Cardinals needed a three-pointer to tie with the Midgets. The Cardinals swung the ball as much as they could, but could not get a three-pointer. Taylor Nicoletti, a freshman, realized this and decided to take over and make a play. Taylor drove and hit a jump shot with about 16 seconds left. The score was now 37-38. Next, they had to play aggressive but smart defense on the Midgets to try and get the ball. The Midgets ended up turning the ball over, out of bounds, on their side of the court. The Cardinals set up a play on the sideline. The goal was to get the ball to freshman Chloe Sipsas, as she would get screened for and dribble all the way up the court and straight to the basket. Chloe shot a middle lay-up and missed but there was some debate whether or not she was fouled on the shot. However, the refs did not call anything putting the Cardinals back on defense and needing to make sure the Midgets did not score. On the inbounds, a Hurley player, Ayianna Nickel caught the ball and was swarmed by the Cardinal defense. This lead to the refs calling a travel on her, giving the Cardinals possession of the ball right under their basket. With only 9 seconds left, Natalie Knaack threw a beautiful lob pass to senior  Heather Ranta, as she had sealed her defender right under the basket. Heather made her shot with ease, putting the Cardinals up 39-38. Now up by one point and only 6 seconds left on the clock, the Cardinals had to play smart defense and not foul or give the Midgets an easy shot. One of Hurley’s guards, Mariah Wick, attempted to drive on Heather Ranta to draw the foul. With the clock winding down, Heather played solid defense and the shot missed without a foul called. The Cardinals won the game by one point in under a minute.

The top scorers of the night were Myla Lahti with 17 points, Rylee Nicoletti with 9 points, Chloe Sipsas with 5 points, Heather Ranta with 4, and Taylor Nicoletti and Signe Branham both scoring two points. Congrats to the Cardinals on their exciting win over Hurley! Good luck with the rest of your season!