Comets? quick start buries Tigers

NEW LONDON ? Cardinal jumped out to an early lead, and a fourth-quarter push by New London wasn?t enough for a comeback. The Comets took last night?s SEISC South competition by a score of 53-35.

?We took care of the basketball and didn?t have a lot of turnovers,? said Cardinal coach, Tom Hallgren. ?Also, we limited them to one shot per possession.?

But for the first three quarters of the game, New London couldn?t do much with that one shot.

?Our biggest struggle was putting the ball in the basket,? New London coach Curt Watson said. ?We?re so young and inexperienced, and it shows at times. The first three quarters are killing us, but we looked strong in the fourth quarter.?

By the final quarter, however, Cardinal had doubled the Tigers? score and was leading 38-19.

Both teams started out with shaky shooting, finishing the low-scoring first quarter 11-6. The Tigers managed only another six in the second quarter, but Cardial put up 14 more points for a 25-12 advantage at halftime.

Then the Comets stretched their lead to 19 and went confidently into the final quarter of the game.

Cardinal got the first bucket in the fourth quarter, but then New London made a 16-6 run to bring them to the final minute of the game. But the Tigers? efforts fell short, and Cardinal added another seven points as the last minute counted down to a Comet victory.

?We still need to get more efficient with our offense,? Hallgren said. ?And we need to focus for the whole game.?

New London has a specific goal to aim for.

?We need to work on passing,? Watson said. ?We had 20 turnovers. We need to half that.?

The Tigers were led in scoring by Dalton Dudley, who put up eight points. Shawn Strothman added six and Qincy Porter added five. Strothman and Tyler Huebner grabbed five boards each. Logan Stevens had a team-high three assists and the Tigers? only block. Tristan Kadel grabbed two steals.

For the Comets, Jonathan Pedersen had a team-high 22 points. He and Cody Carter grabbed six rebounds each. Dakota Showman dished out four assists and nabbed four steals.

The Comets are now 1-2 and play at Pekin Tuesday.