Earlham Echo

January 23, 2024

The Cardinals split a conference doubleheader with Van Meter at home on January 19. The girls won, 54-40, while the boys lost, 59-37.

Girls

The term ‘must-win’ is a bit of a cliché, but the Cardinals certainly ‘needed’ to win against Van Meter. The Cards had lost 3 of their last 4 games. One of those losses was a subpar performance against the Bulldogs on December 15, which broke the Cards’ 6-game win streak against their rivals. For the Earlham seniors, this would be the last time they faced Van Meter, and they were especially determined to get the job done.

“After we lost to Van Meter (in December), I couldn’t even look at the pictures or watch the game (film). It was tough,” said Lily Conry.  “As seniors, we hadn’t lost in 6 games (to Van Meter), I think. This was like, ‘We need this. We’re going to end on a win against Van Meter. There’s no other way we’re going to go out of this.’ That’s just how we wanted it. It’s a mental thing. You don’t want to lose to your rival.”

The game was hard fought from the opening tip. With the Bulldogs in a full-court press in the middle of the 1^st quarter, Van Meter’s Finley Netten fouled Darby Moore hard in the backcourt. Their heads collided, resulting in deep gashes on both the players’ eyelids. Neither returned to the game.

“It was a physical game,” said Olivia Spurling. “Especially when we haven’t played any games in 15 days. But our mental game was there. We didn’t care how hard they were on us. We were there and we knew what we needed to do.”

In December, the Cards got off to a miserable start against the Bulldogs. The Cardinals resolved to not let that happen again.

“The last time we played them, five of our first seven possessions were turnovers,” said Conry. “So that was our number one thing. Going out, stretching out our possessions, and just playing smart. We had two really good early buckets and that kind of set the tone for the game. Those first two minutes set us up.”

Moore opened the scoring by making a jumper from the elbow 26 seconds into the game. Spurling stole the in-bound pass, dribbled into the lane, passed to Kenna Harskamp for an easy layup, and the Cards were off and running. Rowen Fisk made a step-through layup at 6:10. Spurling made another steal at half court, drove a for layup, and the Cards led, 8-3, at 5:03. The Cards did not score again for 4 minutes (a layup by Conry), but they led after 1, 10-7.

The Cardinals held Van Meter to 2 of 10 shooting in the 2^nd quarter and stretched the lead. Avrie Fagan opened the scoring with a 3-pointer from the left corner. Spurling banked in a long 2 at 5:20. Kenna Harskamp took full advantage of the backboard, also, hitting a jumper from the free throw line to give the Cards the lead, 18-9, at 4:30. Harskamp made a steal in the front court and drove the length of the floor for a layup with 2:21 left in the half. Fisk made a putback, Spurling knocked down a 3-pointer, and the Cardinals led at halftime, 25-13.

Van Meter made a good run in the 3^rd quarter, cutting the lead to 6 points at the 2:25 mark, but the Cards responded well. Olivia Nixt made a 3-pointer and Fisk made a short jumper. When Conry opened the 4^th quarter with a 3, the Cards lead was back to a dozen, 39-27, and the Bulldogs never threatened again.

“We talked about it in the locker room (at halftime),” said Conry. “We held them to 13 points in the 1^st half. There’s no way they’re not going to go on a run at some point. We were just expecting that. We saw #42 (Lydia Thummel) getting buckets. She played very well. It really took not letting other players get the ball and shutting them down.”

Fagan, Presley Koberg, and Nixt made field goals in the 4^th, and the Cards made 8 of 10 free throws in the final period.

Fisk led the Cards with 12 points. Spurling and Harskamp had 10 apiece.

Boys

There are nights in a season when a team just ‘doesn’t have it.’ Most teams have had at least a few of those games this season. The Earlham Cardinals, however, lasted until the 12^th game of the season before they ran into that problem. Nothing really went well for them against Van Meter.

“I thought (Van Meter) played really good defense,” said Coach Williamson. “And other than the 3^rd quarter, we couldn’t get anything to fall offensively. And it wasn’t one of our better defensive games. We had trouble guarding the ball. They did a good job of getting it to (Cael) Trudo, and he basically did whatever he wanted to. It was just a rough night for us on both ends.”

Down 29-16 at halftime, the Cardinals did make a serious run at the Bulldogs in the 3^rd quarter. They outscored Van Meter, 13-3 in the 1^st 4 minutes and trailed by just 3, 32-29. But that run seemed to empty the Cards’ tank, and Van Meter responded with an 18-0 run that lasted into the 4^th quarter.

Every team is in the same boat with the recent weather-related issues, but they certainly seemed to take a toll on the Cardinals.

“We can make excuses, and we talked to them about it,” said Coach Williamson. “It’s just routine. With all the snow and all the no-school days, we missed open gym last Sunday. We didn’t practice last night because we were planning on a game. We had curtain issues so we couldn’t go up and down in the gym. Getting back into a routine is going to help. But (Van Meter) did a good job of taking us out of everything we were trying to do tonight.”

Van Meter shot 50% from the field and scored 34 points in the paint. Trudo finished with 20 points. Blake Reynolds led the Cards with 15 points, including 3 3-pointers.

The schedule will get very busy for both the Cardinal boys and girls. Both teams will have to adjust to hardly playing at all to playing almost every night. “We have four practices over the next 9 games,” said Coach Williamson. “So our regular season, essentially, is a 2-week season at this point. We know we have to fix some things and we know if we want a high seed going into tournament time, we have to make sure we take care of things and put ourselves in position to be successful down the line.”