MIDDLEFIELD—Annamarie Pollack pulled off her best Baker Mayfield impression in leading Cardinal to a 38-28 win over rival Berkshire in the semifinals of the Cardinal Holiday Tournament on Thursday.
Pollack tied teammate Camille Cummins with a game-high 12 points and played aggressively on defense in the win.
“Baker Mayfield talks about waking up and feeling dangerous and Annamarie told me before the game she felt good and said she was going to have a good game tonight,” Cardinal coach Luke Kruse said. “I don’t know if she’s our Baker Mayfield or what, but I liked when she came up to me and told me she was feeling good and ready to go tonight and clearly she was. She played great on both ends of the floor. She was huge for us.”
Cummins scored four points in the first quarter and Pollack was 2-for-2 from the line as the Huskies built a 6-2 lead after eight minutes.
The Huskies led 13-9 with a minute remaining in the half when Pollack hit back-to-back baskets to extend the lead to 17-9.
Berkshire scored the first two points of the second half but the Huskies used an 11-0 run to pull away from the Badgers.
“We switched between zone and man and they couldn’t’ seem to get any flow going,” Kruse said. “That’s all about effort and communication on defense. All five girls who were on the floor were giving me effort and they were communicating with each other and it was really hard for Berkshire to put the ball in the hoop. They hardly got any inside looks, which shows the great job the girls gave me on the defensive end.”
The Badgers outscored the Huskies in the fourth quarter, 16-10, but by then the damage had been done.
Cummins finished with another double as she pulled down a game-high 20 rebounds. Ashley Gubanyar and Brittni Lawrence both contributed with five points and Haley Domen added four for the Huskies.
“A lot of girls got in the scorebook,” Kruse said. “It wasn’t about any one player out there on offense. Everyone was looking for good shots and that’s been our emphasis and we did a good job of working the ball inside and outside until we found a good look.”
Lexi Boyk led Berkshire with nine points while Madison Chapman finished with seven.
Cardinal will play LaBrae in Friday’s championship game at 7:30 p.m. Berkshire will play Crestwood in the consolation game at 6:00 p.m.
