Lady Cards Drop Two Over the Weekend

To call the McClave Lady Cardinals streaky just might be an understatement. After dropping both games last weekend, the Lady Cards have now had three losing streaks of two games this season. That goes along with a three-game winning streak to begin the season, and a run of two in the win column that was snapped last weekend.

McClave hosted a highly-ranked Kit Carson squad last Friday, and the Lady Cards, according to coach Kilee Randel, weren’t ready to play. Still, after the first quarter, they only trailed the Lady Wildcats by a single point at 9-8. Kit Carson pushed its advantage to double-digits by the half, outscoring the Lady Cards 18-9 in the second quarter. The Lady Wildcats would go on to a 50-33 victory. Sarah Zamora led the way for McClave with 11 points.

“We were not ready to play, both physically and mentally,” Randel said. “We could just never get anything going. Give Kit Carson credit for never really allowing us to get a flow to our offense. We also didn’t have an answer for (Aurelia) Isenbart. She scored 22 of their 50 points.”

Saturday gave the Lady Cardinals a second shot against Springfield, who had saddled McClave with its first loss of the season in the opening round of the Lamar Holiday Tournament. Back in mid-December, the two went toe-to-toe, with the Lady Longhorns eking out a 56-55 win in double overtime.

This time around, the scoring was more limited, but the game would go down to the wire again. Springfield led 10-8 after the first quarter on its home floor. Just one point would separate the two squads at the end of the second and third quarters, sending the game into the fourth with the Lady Longhorns leading 23-22.

Both offense came alive in the final frame, as they combined for their highest scoring quarter of the contest (24). Springfield was able to make it two straight over McClave this season, 36-33. Zamora again led the squad in scoring, posting eight points in the contest.

“We played hard and had several good things happen for us,” Randel stated. “We struggled a little offensively, but we did a great job on defense. Just like when we played them in the Holiday Tournament, it came down to the wire. We just needed a couple of balls to bounce our way and they didn’t. I was extremely proud of the girls’ fight and mindset going into this game. In the end, we just didn’t pull out the win that we would have liked to see.”

McClave will be tested on Friday when Cheraw visits. The Lady Wolverines, just like the Lady Cardinals, were ranked a few weeks ago, but are now on the outside looking in, despite an 8-2 record.

By Kerry Sherman