MIDDLEFIELD—After a rough start to the season, the Cardinal Huskies have found their stride.
With an 86-46 win over visiting Chalker on Wednesday, the Huskies improved to 3-4 on the year and extended their winning streak to three games.
“It was nice to come out and get a win and win it like we did tonight,” said Cardinal coach Jon Cummins. “We talked about it, what we wanted to do. It was just the mindset of playing good defense. That’s been my motto the whole year, our defense turns into offense and that’s what we did. We got a lot of pressure and we got a lot of steals. The kids played aggressive.”
Leading 6-3 in the first quarter, Cardinal went on a 22-0 run to take control of the contest.
Robbie Bruncak came off the bench to fuel that run with a pair of 3-pointers. He finished with a game-high 21 points.
“He’s shooting the ball well,” Cummins said. “He hit his first three shots, all three for 3s, and he’s got really long arms. He’s able to get some steals and those turn into a lot of buckets as well. When he comes in we kind of get rolling and that’s part of that 22-0 run due to his pressure up front.”
The Huskies also used their defense to create more scoring opportunities.
Bruncak recorded a team-high six steals while Hayden Cummins and Parker Kosh both swiped three passes.
Cardinal finished with 17 steals in the game.
“The guards up front did a good job of switching in our press,” Coach Cummins said. “They did a good job of picking guys up after they switched after the second or third pass and kind of matched up after that. We got deflections and those turned into turnovers and we converted that into easy buckets.”
Robbie Mulh, who tied Cummins with a team-high 10 rebounds, finished 17 points, Luke Timas contributed with 12, Matt Carney scored 11 and Cummins added 10 points.
Kosh pitched in with five points and helped set up the Huskies on defense.
“Parker does a good job out there with the guys and he played well tonight too. He’s a good leader and that helps us get us into the right spots on defense. He’s more of a coach out there,” Cummins said. “Robbie Mulh does the same thing he always does. He got a lot of rebounds and putbacks. We were able to get a lot of easy buckets because he’d get a rebound and push it up the floor to get an easy layup.”
Cardinal travels to rival Berkshire on Saturday.
Cardinal 86, Southington 48
Southington: Carcanas 8, Regal 4, Molohan 4, Wilson 4, Dye 9, Regal 5, Bee 4, Ricks 8
Cardinal: Mulh 17, Bruncak 21, Carney 11, Cummins 10, Timas 12, Kosh 5, Hogue 4, Braun 2, Horner 4
Southington 12 11 13 12 — 48
Cardinal 28 20 16 22 — 86
Free throws: Southington 2 of 4, Cardinal 10 of 13; 3-pointers: Southington 6 (Dye 3), Cardinal 6 (Bruncak 5)
