Senior Julia O'Brien has been among the Cardinals top rebounders this winter.
When the “easy things” like layups and free throws get extremely hard, everything else seems to get even harder. The Cardinals lived that experience Sunday in Arlington as they fell to rival Bishop O’Connell 36-29.
The visiting Cardinals fell behind 9-4 in the opening stanza of the contest but turned the tables on the host Knights holding the home team to only two points in the game’s second quarter to edge in front 13-11 at intermission.
O’Connell regrouped coming out of the locker room in the third quarter and scored 17 points in the third to open up a 28-19 lead heading to the final period. Ireton would shave two points off the margin in the fourth quarter, but it was much too little to stop the Knights from collecting their second conference win of the year.
“We missed so many layups.” lamented Ireton’s assistant coach, Rudy Burton. “And, 11 for 28 from the free throw line will make it hard for anyone to win.” The Cardinals had but 8 field goals for the day, two of them of the three point variety. Bishop O’Connell had similar struggles, making but 10 of 22 at the “charity stripe” and only 12 field goals.
Mara Celis-Copelotti had a game high 12 points, the only player on either team to reach double figures. Alex Stipano added 6, Camille Weber 5, for Ireton while junior Isabelle Kendall and senior Julia O’Brien each contributed 3. Bishop O’Connell was led Gillian Gerten’s 9 points.
The Cardinals postponed contest with Fredericksburg Christian School will not be rescheduled it was announced on Monday.
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