Panthers Claw Cardinals, 85-50

Senior Rima Lghzaoui, right, and Mara Celis, left, combined for 27 points in Cardinals' loss to PVI Friday night.

Just days after the exhileration of ending a WCAC skid dating back to February of 2008, PVI made sure there’d be no upset during their visit to Godley Gym Friday night racing to a 14-4 lead enroute to an 85-50 win.

No team has shot the basketball better in Godley Gym than the visitoring Panthers, raining in 32 field goals, including 10 three-point shots. 8 of those long bombs were by junior Marlena Tremba, who dropped a game-high 29 points on the Cardinals. So overwhelming was the Fairfax school offensively, they bolted to a 30-8 lead after only one quarter.

Senior Rima Lghzaoui had her best scoring night of the season, pacing the Cardinals with 16 points 0n the evening, including the first ten points of the evening for the redbirds. Mara Celis added 11 and freshman Alexandra Stipano chipped in 7 mostly in the final quarter of the contest.

While PVI seemed to score at will, Ireton was plagued by more than 20 turnovers in the contest and found themselves so far behind so quickly that there appeared little they could do to climb back into the game. The Panthers headed to the locker room with a 47-18 lead at halftime. It grew to 68-29 before the Cardinals provided their most offense in the final period to close the game to the final tally.

Homestand over, the long futility ended in WCAC play with the O’Connell win, Ireton (5-14,1-8) heads on the road Tuesday to visit 18th ranked Holy Cross, then returns home Friday to host Archbishop Carroll in the schools first meeting of the season. Both games will tip off at 7pm.