Monday, March 27, 2023

Balanced attack leads Independence past Cardinal

Independence played well on both sides of the court in a 56-28 win over visiting Cardinal on Tuesday.

The Blue Devils, who improved to 4-3 overall, had 10 different players score on offense and limited the Huskies to single digit scoring in all four quarters.

“It went very well,” said Independence coach Mike Marcinko. “Defensively, we only gave up 14 points at the half. I thought we did a great job of trying to take away what they want to run in their sets with very little breakdown. Everybody contributed and we got a lot of people in. Probably the best thing of the day was our defensive effort and defensive execution.”

Halle Dorko led all scorers with 15 points and Hallie Zumack (13) and Nicole Ferrara (10) also scored in double figures for the Blue Devils. Julia Riley added six points while Anna Massey pitched in with three and Jess Dmitruk, Cindy Cooper, Hannah Walker and Sophia Trombetta all scored two. Victoria Sirna added a point.

“Our scoring was spread out,” Marcinko said. “They played a lot of zone so that forced us to move the ball. We went inside and outside, we went up and down. We did a nice job of moving the ball; a lot of people pitched in with big minutes and scoring opportunities. I’m very happy with their effort.”

Much of Independence’s success was the result of the Blue Devils’ hard work under the basket.

“I thought we got out and ran better because we rebounded better,” Marcinko said. “We got to the rim and we got to the foul line and shot it very well from there.”

The Blue Devils scored 23 points from the charity stripe.

Jess Koches led Cardinal with nine points and seven rebounds.

Independence plays Normandy on Saturday while Cardinal opens its own holiday tournament.
 

Steve Harehttp://www.ohiovarsity.com
Steve Hare is the Chagrin Valley Conference's Sports Information Director. He also created and publishes OhioVarsity.com, an online publication dedicated to providing hyperlocal coverage to area high school athletic programs. Hare began covering high school sports for the Lake County News Herald in 1997. Hare attended Willoughby South High School through the middle of his senior year, then graduated from Berkshire High School in Burton in 1986. He played football, wrestled and was an all-Geauga county baseball player (1986). He lives in Chardon with his wife Paulette and their children.

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