Ireton falls just short on Senior Night, 49-44

Ireton's 4 seniors, left to right, Camille Weber, Mara Celis-Copelotti, Taylor Gallahan, and Julia O'Brien

As four Cardinal seniors received accolades for their four varsity seasons with girls basketball, their thoughts turned to the impending contest with Bishop O’Connell. A year ago, the Cardinals snapped a long streak of losses in the WCAC with a thrilling senior night win over the Arlington visitors. Falling just short earlier this year in the season’s first matchup, the seniors looked to even the series on their final regular season game in Godley Gym. In a hard-fought 49-44 setback, the girls fell just short but not for lack of effort as they gamely pulled within a point late in the contest.

Bishop O’Connell took an early 13-6 lead in the first quarter, only to see the Cardinals bounce back with an 18-13 second quarter to 26-24 at intermission. The home team, a long range shooting bunch, couldn’t get but one 3-pointer to fall in the game, and their offensive struggles hurt them down the stretch as they fought to grab a lead. They did cobble together an run in the fourth quarter to close a 38-30 third quarter deficit to 39-38 with 6 minutes remaining in the game.

It was a missed layup that would have given Ireton the lead that may have turned the tide for O’Connell as the Knights survived the Ireton rally and pulled away for their 4th conference win of the year. Tori Morris of DJO led all scorers with 15 points, senior Julia O’Brien led Ireton with 13, Isabelle Kendall had 9. Senior Camille Weber had 7, Mara Celis-Copelotti 6, along with Cece Leon.

The Cardinals ended their regular season 10-17, 2-16 in the WCAC and a number 9 seed in the conference playoffs. As luck would have it, the seed sends the redbirds back to Arlington and a 7pm tipoff with the Knights, the number 8 seed, on Thursday, February 21st. Winner advances to Gonzaga and a matchup with top-seeded St Johns on Saturday.