ORWELL—Injuries have limited the effectiveness of Cardinal senior Dawn Scribben throughout the first two weeks of the 2016-2017 season, but on Monday she took advantage of her playing time to lead the Huskies to a 40-31 win at Grand Valley.
Scribben entered the game late in the third with the Huskies trailing, 27-26. She hit a shot under the basket to put the Huskies in the lead then went on to record four rebounds and a key steal that led to another easy bucket to spark a 14-4 fourth quarter run.
“Before the game, coach expressed mental toughness and that we need to out tough them, mentally, and that's what we did,” Scribben said. “We came in the second half and we (were mentally tough), that's what it was.”
Cardinal led 23-22 at halftime but neither team was able to build a significant lead.
A Cassandra Gallo gave the Mustangs a 27-26 lead late in the third.
That’s when the Huskies were at their best.
Scribben’s basket made it 28-26 and she immediately stole a Grand Valley pass and fed Allissa Nevison for an easy basket to push the Cardinal lead to 30-27. Scribben pulled down four of her eight rebounds in the final 10 minutes of the contest.
“She's a girl that is really hampered by some injuries. It slows her down but when she came in during the third quarter she was the spark we needed,” said Cardinal coach Luke Kruse. “She made a key steal and then went down and made a nice move down low and hit a nice shot under the basket. You talk about hard work; Dawn has put in the hard work. For her to hit a key bucket to put us in position to win the basketball game, I'm just really proud that she stayed ready and made the most of her moment tonight.”
The Huskies recorded four steals and blocked a stretch in the decisive fourth quarter. They also went 4-for-4 from the free throw line with Camille Cummins and Ashley Gubanyar each hitting a pair.
“When it counted, our best quarter was the fourth quarter,” Kruse said. “That's the story of the game. It was back and forth for three quarters. Both teams were playing kind of sloppy, a lot of turnovers. I was really proud that in the fourth quarter we didn't let them back in the game and in fact we extended the lead. We forced them into off-balance shots and made some clutch free throws down the stretch that shut the door on them. Making those clutch free throws in the fourth quarter and keying in on defense made the fourth quarter the best quarter for us tonight and that helped us win the game.”
Cardinal shot 33-percent from the floor while limiting the Mustangs to just 17-percent.
Cummins and Nevison each scored a game-high eight points to lead the Huskies while Scribben and Delaney Leichtman both contributed with seven. Hanna Traggiai pitched in with six and Gubanyar had four. Cummins also led the Huskies with 10 rebounds.
“I thought it was a nice balance tonight,” Kruse said. “Most of my starters had eight or seven points, so the scoring was really spread out. We moved the ball better on offense. We weren't looking for our own shot; we were looking for our teammate's shot. We didn't do that on Saturday. We were looking out for ourselves. It's a totally different game when you look for your teammates before you look for yourself and that's another reason why we were able to pull ahead at the end.”
Gallo, Leah Patterson and Genesis Foltz each scored six for Grand Valley.
Cardinal improved to 2-2 on the year. The Huskies open league play at Hawken on Wednesday.
