The Prescott Cardinals fell to the Hudson Raiders by a score of 69-57 on Friday night in Prescott.

It has been a slow start for the reigning four-peat Middle Border Conference champion Cardinals as they are now 0-2 on the season, albeit in non-conference play.

The game began fairly evenly as the D3 Cardinals went shot for shot with the D1 Raiders. The score was 4-6 after the first 10 points, and 10-10 after 20. That is when things took a turn for the worse as Hudson went on a 9-0 run to bring the score to 19-10, which was pivotal in the final results.

The Cardinals suffered from miscues during this stretch, missing a number of shots at the free-throw line and not converting layups shot from under the basket at as high a clip as they would’ve liked. Meanwhile, the Raiders were on their game, sinking shot after shot. When the score reached 13-28, Prescott was already taking its second timeout to regroup.

Immediately after the play stoppage were back-to-back steals, one by each team. This exchange ended with Cardinals star player Lila Posthuma draining a 3 with 5:00 left on the clock in the first period. Prescott tacked another one on for a mini 5-0 run, and Hudson took a timeout of their own to try to get the hot hand back with 2:54 remaining.

Prescott kept scoring coming out of the timeout, this time on free-throws by Violet Otto. Megan Richter also added on a big time 3 with just 0:30 left, but the first period ended with Hudson up by 11 at 34-23.

Posthuma came out hot in the second half, draining multiple shots right away. Prescott just couldn’t seem to overcome that early 9-0 run though, and the game score hovered around that nine-point deficit all night. A score of 41-32 became 47-36, and at 52-38 the Cardinals took their third timeout.

With the clock winding down in the second period, Prescott tried to close the gap. Otto sunk a huge three-pointer from well outside the key to bring the score to 54-43 with 4:10 remaining. Unfortunately, no matter how hard they pressed, the Cardinals never truly gained back the ground they gave up early in the first period, and they fell to the Raiders with a final score of 69-57.

In a game that was lost by double digit points, it was actually pretty even all the way through. Prescott played point-for-point with a much bigger program almost the entire game, and Head Coach Owen Hamilton gave a glowing review after the game.

“We had a lot of girls step up tonight that I've been waiting for to step up, which I really appreciate out of them,” Hamilton said. “Obviously, we have things that we need to clean up, but we will take what we can get. It's early in the season, and we're going to be just fine going forward.”

Even though Hudson is a D1 team from a much bigger school, Prescott went toe-to-toe with them all night. Barring that one 9-0 run the Raiders put up, Coach Hamilton thinks the game could’ve turned out differently.

“I would guess we had four or five turnovers in that one stretch, and they also got four or five offensive rebounds. We're probably right in the game if that doesn't happen,” Hamilton said. “Playing Hudson is just kind of a fun little rivalry for us. It's a good opportunity to see where we're at against some of the big dogs in the state, and we give them good competition. Their style of basketball really pushes us to be that much better, and it does nothing but benefit us, no matter what the scoreboard says.”

It should come as no surprise that Posthuma, who has already committed to playing basketball in college next year, is leading the team in almost every meaningful category so far this season. A veteran, Posthuma is looking at the long game instead of focusing on their inauspicious 0-2 start to the season.

“The first game we kind of struggled a bit chemistry wise. I feel like we worked hard in our next practices, and in this game, you could really tell that we came together as a team,” Posthuma said. “We're a younger group. So, really just rebuilding and working our way back in the Middle Border Conference to be on top this year.”

That youth and inexperience hasn’t held back sophomore Violet Otto, who co-led the team in scoring with Posthuma at 16, went 3-4 at the line and sunk her only three-point attempt, which was a beauty.

“I was like a freshman coming in last season, and I did better than I was expecting to do. My confidence was there after like my first couple of games, though,” Otto said. “We've only played two games, and I feel like tonight I got going downhill, dribbling and making layups, which normally I didn’t really do last year. This year, people know I can shoot, so I have to work on doing other stuff besides just catching and shooting.”

With this, the Cardinals fall to 0-2 ahead of their first conference game of the season on Tuesday at 7 p.m. when they will host the Somerset Spartans.

“Should be a good one. I think it's two teams that are picked to be towards the top of the conference,” Hamilton said. “We’ve got to get the first one in the win column. So, come Tuesday, that's what we're going for.”