Lady Cards Improve

Record Over Holiday Break

Jessi Simons dribbles around a Cody-Kilgore player on Saturday.

The St. Mary's Lady Cardinals  hit the road on Dec. 28 and traveled to Crofton after ten days without a game.

The Lady Cards took on the Wynot Lady Blue Devils in a match-up of state rated teams in the Crofton Holiday Tournament. St. Mary’s was able to put points on the board first and then failed to make a couple of quick lay-ups. Wynot was able to tie the score at 2-2 and from then on possession changed hands many times through-out the game. Cold shooting was the key in this game as SMH hit on only 3 of 21 three point attempts. The Blue Devils shot 80% from the arch and were 17 of 24 from the line.  St. Mary’s shot only four for nine from the charity stripe. This was a very hard fought game with both teams playing their hearts out. Wynot was able to hand SMH their first loss of the season by winning 51-47.  Leading St. Mary’s in scoring were a pair of juniors, Brooke Bauer and Justine Blumenstock with 14 and 12 points. The Lady Cards held a 38-29 lead in the rebounding at games end led by Justine Blumenstock with 12 boards. 

"Our defense played pretty good as a team, stealing the ball 11 times compared to Wynot's seven steals. With that loss we moved into the consolation game against Bloomfield who was defeated by Crofton," said Coach Pardun. 

In the consolation game against Bloomfield the Lady Cardinals wasted no time in jumping out to a first quarter 21-5 lead over the Lady Bees. Bloomfield was able to out score SMH in the second stanza 13-11. St. Mary’s went into the locker at half-time leading 32-18. After the break SMH pulled away with everyone suited up contributing to the 72-28 victory and claiming third place. Three players notched double figures with Brooke Bauer leading the way with 17 points followed by Bridget Schneider and Emily Everitt with 12 and 11 points. Freshman Sydney Hupp led in rebounding with 10 boards. Bloomfield was forced into 43 turn-overs as the defense played a very good game. With the win St. Mary’s ended 2012 with a 7-1 record. 

Cardinals Defeat Wolfpack

In the first game of 2013, the Lady Cardinals traveled to Elgin and battled with the Wolfpack. The junior varsity saw action first as they jumped out to a 27-4 half-time lead. A very good defensive effort held EPPJ to only four points in the second half giving SMH junior varsity a 48-8 victory and improving their record to 8-0 on the season. Riley Sibbel led all scorers with 12 points followed by Tracy Chvala and Sydney Hupp with 8 each. Alejandra Kersenbrock had four steals in the game, and as a team they had 18. Kaylee Harvey pulled down six rebounds followed closely by other team members. 

In varsity action Brooke Bauer torched the nets as she poured in 28 points. Emily Everitt and Erin Boyle had torches as well, they combined for 26 points. Jessi Simons led the team in assists with five while 20 more assists were dished out by a host of other players. Brooke also had a good night on the boards as she hauled in 10 rebounds. This was a huge Niobrara Valley Conference win for us. Everyone on the team was able to contribute to the 76-40 win. 

     Lady Cards Defeat Cowgirls St. Mary’s racked up a home win against Cody/Kilgore by a score of 89-19. Statistics were not available at this time but will be in next week's paper. With the win SMH now has a 9-1 record and faced Hartington High here in O’Neill on Tuesday evening. The Lady Cardinals will also host Ewing and CWC this week.