Cardinal girls battle back, late flurry falls short

The Prescott Cardinals girls’ basketball team traveled to Ellsworth last Friday, January 10th to play the Panthers.

Isabella Lenz led the Cardinals all over the court. She recorded 31 points, 10 rebounds, nine steals, six assists and a blocked shot. Lenz shot three of six from behind the arc. Sydney Matzek scored ten points to go along with two rebounds, four assists and four steals. Tori Benck recorded nine points, two rebounds, an assist and a steal. Nicole Dalman led all rebounders with 13.

The following day, the Cardinals hosted the Hastings Raiders. The Raiders led 25-19 in the first half. The Cardinals outscored the Raiders 36-33 in the second half, but not enough to win. Mallory Brake led the Raiders to a scrappy win with 27 points, 12 rebounds and six steals in the 58-55 Cardinals loss.

Lenz led the Cardinals again with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Nicole Dalman scored 13 points to go along with 12 boards.

“It didn’t go our way obviously but we battled back. It was a good game,” Head Coach Rob Radloff said. “The way the game went, it was definitely in their favor for the physicalness,” he continued, before saying, “but I thought we held our own and did well. It could have gone either way at the end there. All it takes is a call one way or another.”

In a strong non-conference performance, the Cardinals will look to improve upon what they learned in the narrow loss.

“I told the girls they can’t hang their heads after the loss,” Radloff stated. “It’s a learning opportunity so we’ll take that. We saw a lot of good things from different players and for us to battle back and make it a game at the end says a lot about the character we have on the team.”

The Cardinals are back in action Friday, January 17th when they host the New Richmond Tige

Photos by John McLoone.

Photo by John McLoone.