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The Highland Cardinals already had one game under their belt when they traveled to Argyle Thursday and used that caveat to their advantage, topping the host Argyle Orioles 53-35 in a game between teams from the respective Western and Eastern divisions of the Six Rivers Conference.
Caitlin Wienkes, a 5'6" junior, proved to be coach Josh Tarrell's most worthy weapon in his offensive arsenal when she finished with a game-high 20 points, including 14 in the first half.
It was her three-point buzzer-beater from beyond the arc that gave the Cards a 25-18 lead at intermission.
Coach Kurt Ritschard's Argyle squad was paced by 10 point performances from senior teammates Jozey Thoman and Jenna Langmeier.
Tarrell was pleased with the performance of his girls - or at least for a majority of the game - although he lamented that considering the size advantage his team displayed. He felt they were underachievers in the post during the first half - before turning things around and taking advantage of that size as the game progressed into the fourth quarter.
The Cardinals' mentor took a timeout early in the fourth quarter, when Argyle had cut the lead to four and spent the min-discussion session making his points clear regarding effort..
"Yes, we had a little talk right about then. I gotta give credit to the Argyle girls because they do not have a lot of height but are very gritty and really got after it and we were getting outrebounded where we should not have with us having one girl that's about 6 foot tall and another one around 5'10". We were giving up too many weak side rebounds and they had fought their way right back into the game," said Tarrell. "But, after that discussion, we played much better and came back and were able to pick up the win. We also had an advantage tonight in that it was our second game of the year, having also played Tuesday night against Albany and we probably had a little bit more of an idea of what our team would do. In contrast, for Kurt (Ritschard), it was the first game and you never quite know what you're going to get on the opening night of the season."
"We had some foul trouble early and I had to bring in a sophomore, Karen McMannes, to play the point and she gave us a little bit of a spark and we also got a nice three-point basket just before the half from Caitlin Wienkes that extended our lead into the break. Caitlin played very consistently and well all night - is versatile and despite not being really what you call a tall player, is a very strong player and can play anywhere, meaning running the point. She can play the shooting guard or she can play in the post - pretty much anywhere."
Coach Ritschard was disappointed with the loss but sees opportunity ahead.
"Our girls did some good things at times, so I can't fault the overall effort, but at the end of the day Highland use their strength and size advantage and they also outplayed us for a lot of the game," said Ritschard. "I was pleased with the way that we did fight back and we cut the lead down to a four-point deficit at one point early in the fourth quarter. But when we lost our tallest player, Hannah Saalsaa, due to an injury, we then had a 5'4" girl trying to defend a post player and that's a lot to ask of anybody."
"With the new hand checking rules - those were a factor tonight as well - regarding the fouls and it's something we need to adjust to and that we need to get used to but we realize this was the first night out and there's a learning curve involved. We're shorthanded with a couple of girls out with injuries and that puts us at 13 players between the two squads (jayvee and varsity). But that's not an excuse and we just need to fight through it. As a team, we did not pass the ball at all well tonight and it wasn't necessarily just because of the pressure that they were putting on us. We just made some poor passing choices and committed too many turnovers.
On the other hand, they use a 1-3-1 defense that we really don't see a lot of through the course of the entire season except for Barneveld. But we saw enough tonight that it makes us realize we have a lot of work to do here in getting ready for what's ahead," added Ritschard.
Highland 10 15 9 19-53
Argyle 8 10 10 7-35
Highland (fg-ft-tp) Drury 0-2-2, Wienkes 6-6-20, Kosharek 0-2-2, Bomkamp 7-3-15, Rose 1-1-3, Yager 2-3-7, McMannes 1-0-2. Totals: 15 (2) 17-31 53.
Three-pointers Wienkes 2.
Argyle (fg-ft-tp) Butler-Paulson 1-2-4, Johnsen 1-1-3, Thoman 4-2-10, Langmeier 4-2-10, Flannery 2-0-4, Saalsaa 1-2-4. Totals 13 9-16 35.