Neil Berkman’s Cardinals played a scrappy, never-give-up ballgame as they hosted Bishop O”Connell Friday night in Godley Gym, falling to the Arlington visitors 53-44. The Knights came out shot of a cannon in the first quarter, junior Larry Savage scoring 7 of his 20 points in the opening Stanza. and giving DJO an 18-6 lead after one period.
But the Cardinals shut down the blue and sliver with smothering defense and hustle to throw a 14-0 run on the Knights. In fact, O’Connell scored but a lone free throw in a dreadful second quarter for the Knights and went to the locker room down 20-19.
Coach Joe Wooten challenged his squad at the half to “run their offense”. “You have to attack a zone defense, we did that in the third quarter.” explained the DJO skipper. Savage was a large part of that attack as he had dunks on consecutive possessions during an 8-0 O’Connell run to open the third quarter.
Ireton answered with a run of their own as junior Antonio Rouse hit a jumper and Patrick Hanafin made back-to-back three pointers and cut the advantage to 29-28. The teams traded baskets and Rouse’s three made it 35-31 after three quarters.
Hanafin would hit another three to open the final period, drawing the Cardinals to 37-34, but would get no closer. O’Connell used its size inside and rode the clock as the teams exchanged baskets but Ireton never getting closer than 4, it’s last look 45-41 with 1:25 to play. From there Ireton was in the foul and chase mode to try to make up ground, but the Knights steadily pulled away for the 53-44 finish.
The Cardinals fall to 5-8 on the season, 0-6 in the rugged WCAC while the Knights improved to 7-6, 3-4 in the conference play. Ireton hosts St Mary Ryken Tuesday in Godley Gym.
JV boys continued their strong season with a 70-52 thumping of O’Connell. Malcolm Westbrook lead all scorers with 26 points for the Cardinals. Ireton fell behind 4-0 in the contest before going on a 23-2 run to blow the game open in the first quarter.
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