The Spring Valley Cardinals defeated the McDonell Central Macks by a score of 46-43 in Chippewa Falls on Tuesday and lost to the Eau Claire Immanuel Lancers on Thursday 52-38.

The Cardinals’ win over the Macks was their first game of the season, and it was a good one.

The game started with defensive efforts from Jameson Bauer and Kaden Robelia who went back-to-back with steals. Bauer dropped in a three-pointer shortly thereafter to extend the Cardinals’ lead to 8-4.

The Macs pushed back and took a short-lived lead at 13-12, but Cade Stasiek added two three-point shots in a row to reclaim it. At 20-13, Trevor Forster and Bauer both got timely steals that led to points, the second of which on a fast break from Stasiek running head long down the court to make the layup. The Cardinals went into the half up by double digits.

The second half wasn’t as much of a runaway as the first for Spring Valley. Their 11-point lead was the widest margin of the game, and it would slowly shrink throughout the second period.

With 10:00 to go in the game, it had shrunk to a nine-point lead, and less than a minute later it was down to six at 34-28. The Cardinals were outscored by a slim margin of 15-12 the rest of the way, but they held on to a tight win of 46-43 to take their first victory while moving to 1-0 on the season.

The team stats weren’t as good as you would like to see, but it’s early in the season. As a whole, the Cardinals shot 36% from the field (18-50), 58% from the line (7-12) and just 17% of three-pointers (3-18).

Stasiek was the standout player of the game in this one, garnering a double-double with 16 of Spring Valley’s points and a whopping 13 rebounds while also leading the team in assists and chipping in a couple steals. Diego Schmitt did his part as well, taking second on the team in rebounds with nine and tying for second in points scored.

Thursday’s game against the Lancers was a back and forth battle all night; unfortunately, the Cardinals just ended up on the wrong side of the win loss column this time.

Eau Claire jumped out to a little bit of a lead early, and at 9-5 the Cardinals took a timeout to reset. It was a scoring frenzy coming out of the time stoppage.

The Lancers scored two on their first possession, so Spring Valley answered with a three. The Lancers put up a three, so the Cardinals went on a 10-0 run.

First, Forster and Robelia put up two three’s back-to-back to take a 16-15 lead. Seconds later, Forster blocked a pass and Stasiek took a fast break the length of the court and pushed their lead out even further. Then, a quick steal from Robelia followed by a pass up court to Stasiek resulted in another layup for points.

With the score hitting 20-15, Eau Claire was forced to take a timeout. The Lancers came out of the break and went on an 8-2 run to end the half up 23-22.

Eau Claire kept pushing in the second period too, scoring 10 of the first 15 points and forcing Spring Valley to call another timeout to try to stop the bleeding. It worked, as Robelia and Elijah Poulin went back-to-back on three-pointers from almost the exact same spot at the right corner to take the lead at 33-32.

It was a back-and-forth battle from there all the way to the end. With 4:25 left in the game, Eau Claire took a two-point lead, and then Jameson Bauer hit a three and retook it at 46-45. The Cardinals took two more points, and then the Lancers tied it up with a three at 48-all.

A foul shot by Schmitt gave Spring Valley a one-point edge with 1:46 to go. The Lancers then sunk a field goal to take the lead back, so the Cardinals stopped the clock one last time, down by one with just over a minute remaining.

Both teams tightened up as the seconds wound off the clock. Eau Claire managed to draw a crucial foul with 0:25 to go. The Lancers sunk both free throws putting the home team in a do or die, three-point deficit with one or maybe two shots at tying it up and just 25 seconds to do it in.

Eau Claire gave no ground while Spring Valley moved it around the perimeter looking for their opening. With time winding down towards zero, the Cardinals found a tight window and took it, but it was a rim shot.

Spring Valley pounced on the rebound and got it back to the outside, but with time about to expire, a last, rushed shot sailed wide as the buzzer rang. The final score was 52-49.

The scoring was pretty evenly spread out, but Stasiek was the all-around silver lining player of the game in this one. He finished third on the team in scoring (8) while leading the team in assists (8) and steals (5). Masyn Wolf also had a good game for the Cardinals, garnering 12 rebounds and multiple steals while also going 2-3 from the field and sinking both of his three-point attempts.

Head Coach Rob Bosshart likes what he saw from his guys with how they handled the Lancers’ offense but says they have some improvements to make if they want to close out these close games.

“Defensively we've been good. I mean, obviously, there's some things we can always get better at, but for this early in the season, I think we've done a decent job defensively,” Bosshart said. “We're going to spend some more time working on things offensively. That's two games in a row now that we haven't shot very well from the perimeter. Maybe that’s just because it's early in the season, but we're three weeks in now, so we need to start getting better at that.”

This program has been very successful in recent years, finishing top three in the conference for five straight years including back-to-back championships in 2020 and 2021. They are currently without one of their top guys from last year in Tanner Dicus who is out with an injury, and Bosshart says that has added its own little wrinkle to the offensive chemistry.

“I think we're still trying to find ourselves as a group with what our identity is. Even though we have the core of the group coming back from last year, even one or two different guys makes a difference in how you come back,” Bosshart said. “Roles have shifted a little bit, and I think we're still trying to go through the process of figuring it out.”

Even though they would’ve liked to have shot a little better and gotten the win, Stasiek says they aren’t worried about it.

“We’ve still got a long ways to go. We’re going to keep practicing. Our shooting wasn’t great tonight, but we still have all season to work on it,” Stasiek said. “We were gone all summer, so we’re just getting warmed up.”

The Cardinals will go on the road on Tuesday to face Alma-Pepin before starting conference play on Thursday when they will host Boyceville. Tip off for both of those games is 7:15 p.m. Spring Valley will also play a non-conference game against Unity at UW-Stout on Saturday at 4:15 p.m.