Hitting some big free throws down the stretch in the second half on the road, helped the Ell-Saline Lady Cardinals break their 8 game losing streak and collect a 31-28 win over Sedgwick Friday night.
After having some recent games of cold shooting from the field, it was charity tosses that came to the rescue.
The Ell-Saline girls stepped up to hit 10 of 15 free throws overall for 67% in the game and hit 8 of 13 down the stretch in the second half to propel the upset victory. The Lady Cardinals jumped out to an early lead of 5 points in the first quarter and closed out the first 8 minutes of play with a 10-6 advantage.
In the second quarter the Lady Cardinals would not shoot a free throw, but did hit some big shots from the field and collected their lone 3 point basket for the game to take a 19-13 lead at intermission. The defensive pressure was solid all game, as Sedgwick was forced into 22 turnovers on the night.
It was a 10-3 run in the 3rd quarter for Sedgwick that would give them a one point lead 23-22 heading into the final 8 minutes of play. In the fourth quarter the Lady Cardinals would connect on two 2 point field goals and go 5 of 9 from the free throw line and close out the game with the 31-28 victory.
Junior Raleigh Kramer led the Lady Cardinals in scoring with 8 points and going 4 for 4 from the charity line, senior Reece Ditto added 6 points hitting 4 of 7 free throws in the second half to help ice the game late, with freshman Bayleigh Schneider chipping in 5 points.
Sedgwick senior Taylinn Lacey led all scorers with 11 points and sophomore Anessa Croxton added 5. The Ell-Saline Lady Cardinals improve to 6-10 overall 3-2 in District play, while Sedgwick drops to 8-7.
Ell-Saline is on the road again on Monday at Inman, be sure to catch all the action beginning with the 5:45 pre-game show and 6:00 o’clock tip-off on 104.9 FM.
CARDINAL BOYS NO MATCH FOR SEDGWICK IN BLOWOUT WIN
The Ell-Saline Cardinal boys dropped their 17th game of the season in a blow-out victory for Sedgwick 66-21 Friday night.
Hitting on all cylinders from the start Sedgwick saw 9 of 14 players that saw action in the game jump out to a 19-7 lead at the close of the first quarter and never looked back, as leading scorer for the Sedgwick Cardinals and for the game, junior Lance Hoffsommer would score 10 of his 19 points in the first quarter.
Hoffsommer would produce another double-double on the season with 19 points and 15 rebounds, as he has averaged a double-double nearly every game this season. Ell-Saline had no answer for the Sedgwick pressure defense and turned the ball over 21 times in the game.
Cardinal Head Coach Marty Wendel, stated he saw some positive things from his team in the blowout loss, as the Ell-Saline boys were running the offense with some good looks, but not able to hit the shots. Coach Wendel states, his team never quits and works hard in practice every day to improve.
Sedgwick rolled to a 45-14 advantage at halftime, but in the final 16 minutes of play it was a running clock.
Senior Carter Underwood led Ell-Saline in scoring with 8 points and senior Trevor Petersen chipped in 5. For Sedgwick, it was Hoffsommer with 19, followed by sophomore Christian Brown with 11, junior Sam Culp with 9 and three players added 6 each, as Sedgwick moves to 10-5 on the season and the Cardinals dropped to 0-17.
Ell-Saline is on the road Monday night at Inman, with the tip-off slated for 7:30 on 104.9FM.
