Cardinal got off to a fast start in its upset bid at Independence on Wednesday but the host Blue Devils weathered the early storm and pulled out a 57-36 win.
“They really shot the ball well early,” Independence coach Mike Marcinko said of the Huskies. “They were 5-for-5 out of the gate and did a really good job for it being a road game coming out aggressive right off the bat. It was nothing I thought we did poorly, they just executed really well and knocked down shots in the first four minutes of the game and it took us a little while to get going.
Independence held a 10-9 advantage after the first quarter and led 20-16 at the break.
The Blue Devils slowly pulled away in the second half and finished the fourth quarter on a 17-5 run in improving to 12-2 overall and 8-0 in the Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division.
“In the second half, I thought a couple of little things we did offensively, some small adjustments, helped us and obviously when the ball goes in the hole everything works. We shot it a little better and made some better decisions during that third and fourth quarter time frame. It’s not that we defended poorly in the first half but we ratcheted it up another notch where we got a few more steals and deflections and some stops where we could run out and not have to walk it up, so I think that helped us get out in front.”
Riley Wilson scored a game-high 21 points to lead the Blue Devils and Haylee Dmitruk finished with 15.
“Riley kind of had a quiet 21,” Marcinko said. “She had her hands full trying to box out (Camille) Cummins. That was a big issue just trying to keep her off the offensive glass. She had a lot to do and Haylee hit a key 3 early to get us going and then made some driving layups and got to the free throw line.”
Riccela DiGeronimo added seven points in the win, Amy Ksiazka pitched in with five and Erica Esper finished with three points. Reni Kaiser, Kaitlin Richards and Madison Stepanik each scored two points for the Blue Devils.
“We just kind of spread it around with a couple of points from everybody,” Marcinko said. “Amy Ksiazka, there was a possession in the second quarter where she had three offensive rebounds and she by far is not the tallest player but she was flying in and getting offensive rebounds and getting us restarted. It was impressive.”
Cummins led Cardinal with 14 points while Ashley Gubanyar contributed with nine, Annamarie Pollack scored six, Adriana Naples finished with five and Brittni Lawrence and Taylor Soltis added two and one, respectively.
“We had a great start and withstood a tough stretch at the beginning of the second quarter to only be down four at the half,” Cardinal coach Luke Kruse said. “I was proud of the mindset the girls came out with believing they could pull off an upset on the road. Unfortunately, the fourth quarter favored Independence as we got down by about 10 and had to spread out defensively and try some pressure so they couldn’t dribble the clock out. They are a great team at running the floor and getting through pressure so they were able to go on a big run there the last few minutes to put it out of reach. We are looking forward to getting another look at them on our home floor at the end of the season.”
Independence travels to Wickliffe on Saturday with a 1:00 p.m. tip-off while Cardinal hosts Kirtland at 2:30.
