Lady Cardinals Topple Opponents

By: assistant coach Terry Viterna

In the last seven days St. Mary's varsity girls basketball team has been able to put a lot of points on the board and improve their record to 12-1 this season. The Lady Cards have racked up four very impressive wins in one week.

On Jan. 5, SMH defeated Cody-Kilgore 89-19 in non-conference action. Brooke Bauer led all scorers with 16 points, followed closely by Addie Wetzel and Krissy Krotter with 12 each. Wetzel and Justine Blumenstock pulled down seven and six boards to lead SMH. Riley Sibbel dished out a team high six assists while other team members handed out 17 more. One key statistic in this game was turnovers as the Cowgirls committed 36 compared to the Lady Cards' 12. Another huge factor was the bench players coming off the bench scoring 48 points compared to four for Cody-Kilgore.

Next was Hartington High on the SMH home court as the Lady Cards defeated the Lady Wildcats 81-39. Once again the SMH bench proved very important as the Lady Cards popped in 40 points compared to Hartington's six points from their bench players. Bauer had a good night as she dropped in 20 points and grabbed five rebounds. Erin Boyle scored 12 points while Sydney Hupp hauled in eight rebounds. Bridget Schneider and Mackenzie Wecker gave out six and four assists. As a team SMH had 17 steals and created 36 turnovers for the Wildcats. The Lady Cardinals only committed 10 turnovers. This was their best night shooting free throws as a team, the Lady Cards were 15-19 shooting 79%.

On Jan. 10 Ewing's Lady Tigers roared into town and put up a tough battle against the Lady Carindals in Niobrara Valley Conference basketball. St. Mary's led after the first quarter 18-7 and managed to take a 35-9 lead into the first half. Things were a little different in the third period as Ewing put in 12 points to St. Mary's 10. In the last quarter SMH was able to put the game away as they played very good defense and knocked down 23 points to win 68-28. Justine Blumenstock and Brooke Bauer had a huge game as they combined for 19 rebounds and 35 points. Bridget Schneider added eight rebounds and eight assists to the win.

Chambers/Wheeler Central finished the week out in basketball for the Lady Cards. The Lady Renegades were a very tough match up for the evening as they proved to be very physical on the boards and fought hard for every possession. The Lady Cardinals had another huge night from the charity stripe shooting 20-27 for 74.1%. Addie Wetzel led SMH in rebounds with six and Brooke Bauer along with Bridget Schneider led in scoring with 27 and 18 points. Once again the bench proved to be a huge key in the 76-40 victory. The SMH bench is very deep and they have proven it in practice and in every game.