Comets shoot past Harmony for third win

ELDON ? The Cardinal girls? basketball team grabbed 20 steals and turned the ball over a measly 14 times en route to blasting past Harmony 58-36 Tuesday in Eldon.

?We went out there. We played with our heads. We played smart,? said new Cardinal girls head coach Jenny Cronbaugh. ?We played under control tonight and that makes a difference for us.?

Liz Nichols kicked off the contest with a 3-pointer in the opening seconds Tuesday, and the senior and her teammates rarely put their feet off the gas from there. Brooke Courtney scored the next two buckets for the Comets as they opened a 7-0 lead in the first three minutes of play and 13-8 lead after the first quarter.

The Comets continued netting a steady dose of points in the second quarter, going on a nine-point run to open it up. Courtney scored the first four points in the period?s first minute, Nichols hit her second shot from beyond the arc and Lindsay Moore scored another four to help the Comets build a 24-8 lead.

Harmony finally got on the scoreboard with 3:17 left in the second quarter and then proceeded to go on an 11-3 run to narrow the lead to 29-19 at halftime.

The Harmony girls flirted with a single-digit deficit as the second half began but never got closer than nine points. Lindsay Moore scored 10 of her 18 points in the third quarter, including 4-for-4 shooting from the charity stripe, to help Cardinal grab a 43-28 lead with just eight minutes to go. The junior finished the game with 41 percent of her shots falling.

The Comets outscored Harmony 15-8 in the final quarter.

Also for Cardinal, Courtney tallied 15 points, Nichols had 12 on limited playing time due to an ankle injury and Laci Moore scored eight points along with four assists. Sarah Greiner and Leea Ostrander scored two, and Mattie Kildow had one point. Freshman Jordan Smith grabbed 15 boards, including eight on the offensive glass, as well as four steals.

With the win, the Comets snapped a two-game losing streak. It also was the team?s second win since Cronbaugh took the head coaching position just five games ago.

?We?re just moving forward, we can?t go back,? said Cronbaugh, who served as the assistant coach before taking over for Jeff Miller. ?We?ve got a great group of girls and that?s made a huge difference.?

The Comets (3-5, 3-3 SEISC south) will continue the move forward when they host Central Lee on Jan. 3.

CARDINAL ? Lindsay Moore 7-17 4-4 18, Courtney 6-15 3-3 15, Nichols 4-14 0-2 12, Laci Moore 4-18 0-0 8, Greiner 1-1 0-0 2, Ostrander 1-2 0-3 2, Kildow 0-0 1-2 1, Honomichl 0-3 0-0 0, C. Smith 0-1 0-0 0, J. Smith 0-5 0-0 0, Total 23-76 8-15 58

3-point goals ? Nichols 4. Rebounds ? J. Smith 15, Nichols 7, Courtney 7. Assists ? Laci Moore 4, Lindsay Moore 3, Nichols 2, Greiner 2. Steals ? J. Smith 4, Ostrander 3, Nichols 3, Courtney 3. Blocks ? Courtney 1