Lady Comets fall to Highland

The long ball was keeping Cardinal in the game through the first half.

Eighteen of the 25 first-half points that the Comet girls? basketball team scored on Tuesday night came from behind the 3-point line, and they were sticking around against Highland at the break. Despite sticking within nine points, the Huskies didn?t allow Cardinal to stick around in the second half, utilizing a 15-5 run to open the third quarter and cruising to a 79-45 victory.

?We got tired,? Cardinal girls? basketball head coach Aaron Dose said. ?We didn?t hit the shots we needed in the second quarter. We came out kind of flat in the second half. We have to lock down defensively. Their guards did what they wanted in the fast break.?

Cardinal opened up the game with its first four field-goals of the game coming from long range, but Highland used a 18-5 run to take a 24-16 lead after one quarter.

In the second quarter, the scoring slowed down, and Cardinal stayed in the game with a pair of 3-pointers, trailing 34-25 at the break.

?We like to execute our half-court stuff, a lot of times for threes,? Dose said. ?(Highland) did a better job defensively in the second half, and we weren?t executing because we were tired.?

After halftime, Cardinal trimmed the deficit to seven points, but Highland went on a 15-5 run to pull away and the Comets couldn?t close the gap any further.

The Comets were paced by senior Lexi Fullenkamp?s 13 points, while senior Jessie McElderry put in 10 points.

One of the biggest things Dose wants to see out of his team is another girl step up and be a big scoring threat.

?We need more go-to people to handle the ball in pressure,? Dose said. ?We had a lot of turnovers that were soft turnovers I felt, so we need to eliminate those.?

Cardinal will face Van Buren Friday night.