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Washington Evening Journal
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Comets seal it with fast start, strong finish
ELDON ? Cardinal showed short flashes of a dominant performance, but New London did what it could to hang around Tuesday night.
The Comets (1-2, 1-2 SEISC south) appeared to have things under control leading by as many as 15 points in the first half, but New London (0-3, 0-3) made things a little too close for Cardinal head coach Kenny Hamm?s liking before succumbing by a final score of 61-43 to give the Comets their
Carson Tigges, Ledger sports editor
Sep. 30, 2018 9:37 pm
ELDON ? Cardinal showed short flashes of a dominant performance, but New London did what it could to hang around Tuesday night.
The Comets (1-2, 1-2 SEISC south) appeared to have things under control leading by as many as 15 points in the first half, but New London (0-3, 0-3) made things a little too close for Cardinal head coach Kenny Hamm?s liking before succumbing by a final score of 61-43 to give the Comets their first win of the young season.
Marcus Giltner scored 14 of his 16 points in the first half, but New London big man Kyle Helmerson led an assault from downtown in the second. Helmerson hit four 3-balls total to finish with a game-high 21 points.
?It?s all mental. It always is for us,? Hamm said. ?Everything starts with that, but physically, we have enough to compete on a nightly basis if we?re prepared. We may have overlooked them a little bit.?
The winless Tigers received back-to-back 3-pointers from Justin Hill and Dakota Job to make the score 36-28 early in the third quarter and cause just enough uneasiness on the Comet bench. But with the score 38-30, AJ Rachford found his range and Marcus Giltner regained his touch from the first half and Cardinal put together a 12-2 run over the next three minutes to take a 20-point lead entering the fourth quarter.
Giltner was the one that helped Cardinal to an early lead it would never surrender as he scored eight points in the first quarter alone almost exclusively on driving layups. The senior had seven steals in the game and his first bucket forced a New London timeout just 1:12 into the game.
Trevor Kayser picked up the slack in the second half to match his teammate with 16 points of his own to go along with eight rebounds and three blocks. Brandon Warren finished with 12 boards including an offensive rebound and put back on the first possession of the game to give Cardinal a quick 2-0 lead.
With its first taste of victory, Cardinal now returns to a tough schedule with visits from Pekin and Burlington-Notre Dame coming up Thursday and Friday.
