Earlham Echo

January 20, 2026

The Cardinals traveled to Guthrie Center on January 16 and swept a conference doubleheader from AC/GC.

Girls

The Cardinals have had some quality wins this season, but their resume got even more impressive when they went into a hostile environment and beat a hostile team, handing the Chargers only their 3^rd loss of the season, 52-40. The performance was the kind of 32-minute effort that the Cards will need if they want to make noise in the post-season.

“It was high-level intensity from start to finish,” said Coach Gentry. “We have struggled with, ‘Hey, we’ve played three quarters, but we can’t play a fourth.’ Or, ‘We played two good quarters.’ Today, I felt like we played four quarters.”

The Chargers posed a tough, physical test for the Cards. AC/GC had a size advantage at every position. They are not only a big team, but they are fast, aggressive, and a little nasty at times. The Cardinals held up just fine.  

“We’ve talked about it since the beginning of the season,” said Coach Gentry, “that we need to be mentally and physically tough. That’s what it’s going to take for you to battle and push through the hard times. It’s been week-by-week, day-by-day. Something they had to learn. Talking through things, watching stuff, getting in the weight room. Games like this show like why it helps us, and now they’ve seen the benefits of what that does.”

The Chargers got off to a fast start by making 3 3-pointers in the 1^st quarter. They made a layup-and-one to open the 2^nd and led, 15-5. Piper Koberg scored from the low block at 6:05 to start a rally. Kenna Harskamp sank a 3, then made a baseline jumper at 4:51, and the Cards trailed, 15-12. After two Charger 3s, they led, 21-12 at 3:28. The Cards rallied again. Moore made a 3, Harskamp hit a free throw line jumper, and Moore sank another 3 in the waning seconds of the 2^nd, and the Cards trailed at halftime, 21-20.

The Cardinal offense sputtered for most of the 3^rd quarter, and AC/GC pushed their lead to 30-22 at the 4:40 mark. But then the Cards started making shots. Harskamp knocked down at 3 at 2:50. Moore stole the ball at the Charger 3-point line and drove the length of the floor for a layup at 1:35. Avrie Fagan made a baseline 3 with 35 seconds to go. Camryn Sly capped off the rally with a buzzer-beating 3 to give the Cardinals their first lead of the game, 33-32. The Cards’ momentum was tempered a bit when Harskamp injured her ankle, just before Sly’s shot, and never returned to the game.

AC/GC scored first in the 4^th quarter, but the Cardinals got the next 7 points. Moore made a long 3, Fagan made 2 free throws, Moore drove for a fast-break layup, and the Cards led, 40-34, at 5:40. The Chargers never recovered. The tight, pressing Cardinal defense kept them off kilter for the rest of the game, and the Cardinals outscored them, 12-6, down the stretch.

The Cardinals made just 36% of their field goal attempts for the game, but their defense was superb, holding the Chargers 16 points under their scoring average. ‘Good defense leads to offense’ is a standard basketball philosophy, and that was certainly the case in this game.

“We were getting stops, getting it done defensively, and making sure it was a constant team effort on that end,” said the coach. “And then we put pieces in place to let players make plays. And that’s what they did. Kenna made good plays. Darby made good plays down the stretch. Avrie made good plays on the stretch, even though they were face guarding her. They made a tweak, so we had to make a tweak. So it was a matter of being patient and knowing what we’re looking for and finding those mismatches.”

Moore led the Cards with 18 points. Harskamp scored 14 and Fagan scored 13.

Boys

The Cardinals overcame a shaky 2^nd quarter to beat the Chargers handily, 61-43. The win halted a 4-game losing skid, so it was especially satisfying.

“We’ve just been waiting for this,” said Corbin Etter. “We knew it was going to happen, and we knew it was going to happen tonight. We came in with a game plan and we executed. We came out strong, 13 to zero. They kind of battled back, but then we put them away in the second half. That felt great, and this one feels great to win.

Griffin Messer scored 8 points, Carter Frank scored 3, and Brady Reynolds scored 2 in the Cardinals’ 13-0 run to start the game. The Chargers answered with 9 points in a row, though, and took control of the game in the 2^nd quarter. They led at halftime, 24-21.

There was no talk about Xs and Os in the locker room at halftime; just a discussion about getting back to Cardinal basketball.

“We just said that we have to get to playing our game again,” said Brady Reynolds. “Talk, communicate more on defense, and just swing the ball a little more. We had kind of relied on the dribble and that wasn’t working for us. So we went back to swinging the ball; hit the open man and just trust ourselves; trust our teammates.”

Reynolds keyed Earlham’s 3^rd-quarter resurgence with 8 points—attacking the basket with ferocity—and his overall presence on the floor. The Cards totally flipped the script from the 2^nd quarter and led, 43-31, after 3.

“I felt pressure higher up past the three-point line,” said Reynolds, “so I thought I wasn’t going to be able to get as many deep shots. So I decided to try to take it into the lane and start working, and I kept doing it.”

The Cards buried the Chargers with an 18-point 4^th quarter.

Reynolds led four Cardinals in double figures with 18 points. Frank scored 14 and Messer scored 11. Etter had 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Frank broke the single-game school record for rebounds with 21. He grabbed 7 on the offensive end and 14 on the defensive end.

“It feels pretty great,” said the junior. “I knew some other games that I was close, but I just couldn’t get there. And then this game, Coach told me that I needed three more when the fourth quarter started. I was like, ‘I have to go.’ I’m so excited.”

The effort was no fluke. Frank has been a beast on the boards all season. He’s currently 10^th in Class 1A with 136 rebounds. His secret? Effort and attitude.

“Nobody wants to do the dirty work of rebounding and stuff,” he said. “So this year, I knew that somebody had to step up. I was like, ‘I have to get these rebounds to help the team out the most.’” The previous record was held by Trent Williamson.