Cardinal’s young basketball team struggled to find its footing early in the season but now the Huskies are playing with more confidence, which has led to more success.
On Wednesday, the Huskies used a dominating third quarter to pull away from host Fairport Harding, 55-43. Coupled with Saturday’s win over Grand Valley, the Huskies have collected back-to-back victories for the first time this season.
“The girls were excited about our ‘winning streak,’” Cardinal coach Joe DiMattia said. “Well, I guess I was too. We talked about it before the game and knew we had a good chance to get it. We started out real tough at the beginning of the season, so to be able to put together back-to-back wins is really good for team morale.”
Taylor Soltis scored seven points in the first quarter to lead Cardinal to a 12-11 lead after the first quarter.
Soltis, who finished with 13 points, added four more in the second quarter but ran into foul trouble.
That allowed the Skippers, thanks to a six-point quarter from freshman Kara McFadden, to take a 23-21 lead into the break.
“It was a slower start, but I’m happy with it,” DiMattia said. “Taylor came out and hit some shots and kept us ahead until she ran into foul trouble. We tried our zone press against them in the first half, but didn’t get much out of it.”
The Huskies focused on slowing down McFadden in the second half and outscored the Skippers in the third quarter, 24-4.
“Before the game, coach (Jim) Gubanyar and I had discussed that and we said if that happened, we would just take away (McFadden) and see what the other four girls could do,” DiMattia said. “We doubled her and barely let her touch the ball, and that’s when we pulled away.”
Haley Domen scored seven her game-high 17 points in that decisive third quarter and Ronee Collins scored five of her eight in the period. Lorena Fortenbury also scored five of her 10 during Cardinal’s run.
“Fairport threw a bunch of defenses at us,” DiMattia said. “They played a Triangle-and-2 and a 1-3-1, so we were able to move the ball around and we had people knock down some shots. Taylor was on fire in the first half, Lorena Fortenbury broke out of a slump and hit some big shots, and Domen was once again Domen. I can’t say enough about her. She was the game’s leading scorer even when Fairport tried to take her out of it. She works hard game in and game out.”
Julianna Pollack contributed to the win with three points and Cassie Nguyen and Hailey Keller each scored two.
“Ronee Collins and Cassie Nguyen stepped up in the second half and took (McFadden) away,” DiMattia said. “Hailey Keller came in and played well and limited their bigs on the glass. Bri Doolittle also came in, was close to 10 boards and played some nice defense down low. Megan Ehrhart, Madi Hemrock and Madi Rosenberger came in and closed the game out and played well and Julianna hit some shots as well.”
McFadden led the Skippers with 15 points and Olivia Eldridge finished with 12.
