CARDINALS CANT HANDLE WALSH
By Matt Maher
YOUNGSTOWN, OH – The Cardinals are a week away from tournament play and they welcomed a great challenge and test to town in the form of the Walsh Jesuit Warriors to see how they’d handle a tough opponent and while the 58-42 loss wasn’t ideal the Cardinals showed glimmers of good defense and some offensive mistakes that can be corrected given the right coaching and time during practice and their last regular season game come Thursday.
Walsh Jesuit jumped out to a hot start against the Cardinals but Mooney stuck with their game plan and kept it close only trailing 11-8 after one frame. Walsh was led by Taylor Angielski who found 5 points including the first and only 3 of the game to this point. Mooney countered with Sophia Diorio who found 6 points all in the paint while Talecia Huff found the other 2 points. While it stayed close early Walsh turned off cruise control and showed Mooney how they played ball.
16-7 was the difference in the second with Walsh getting most of their scoring from one source while Mooney tried to spread it out amongst each other. The Individual who scored 8 points in the quarter for Walsh was Kara Courtad who pushed her way through the paint either with the ball or to get in position for a good pass and she didn’t seem to miss much. Katie Pregibon had the most points at the end of the quarter with 3 while Huff and Zanijahray Wright combined for the other 4 points. The Warriors found holes in the Cardinals defense and took advantage while Mooney found themselves in great scoring spots but would over shoot the ball which would result in a big rebound things would need to change after halftime.
Cardinal Mooney has shown us to be a good second half team all season and you could certainly say that stayed true on Monday night. In the third the Cardinals trailed 15-11 in scoring but that score was the first time they found double digits in a quarter so you could tell this team was starting to heat up. Kara Estefan for Walsh led her team with 5 points including a 3 and a perfect 2-for-2 from the stripe. The Warriors would go 4-for-6 from the line as a team in the first quarter we got to see an abundance of free throws.
Sophia Diorio came out of the break on a mission and that mission was a successful one as she found 8 points with a made 3, two 2’s and 1-of-2 free throws scored. Huff found herself with 3 points all from the stripe. Mooney would go 4-for-8 from the line leaving 4 points on the floor that could have tied them in 3rd quarter scoring with the Warriors.
The fourth quarter was Mooney’s quarter with a scoreline that went their way and a more sound offense and even defense the Cardinals would end the game with a 16-14 advantage in scoring in the final quarter. Cesily Sutton found herself leading Walsh with 6 points including a long 3 that would be impressive on any team. Talecia Huff took the torch and led her team with 7 points with two field goals and going 3-for-6 from the stripe. Sophia Diorio found herself with 5 more points as well.
While the Cardinals may have won the 4th they couldn’t score enough to take the game. Sophia Diorio finished with 19 points which was the most among all players in this game while Talecia Huff finished with 14 which was tied for 2nd with Walsh’s Kara Courtad.
Both teams looked about even in defensive coverage and offensive chances. The issue for Mooney was that they shot the ball too hard which resulted in the ball going over the rim or too hard off the backboard and landing right in the palms of the Warriors who were waiting for it. If Mooney can figure out the right amount of strength to put on their shots they should have no problem in their final game of the season and should play a good game against Champion in tournament play.
Walsh Jesuit (11-9) will finish off their season at home when they host CVCA on February 14th at 7:00PM while Cardinal Mooney (8-13) will end their campaign at Hubbard on February 15th at 7:00PM.
