Cardinals dial in from deep to trip ranked Ithaca

Fact: the Highland boys basketball team made 11 three pointers in their win over Ithaca in a non-conference game Monday.

When a team wins by 11 those 11 extra points figure into the difference. The Cardinals tripped the number 8th ranked team in Division 5 74-63 an 11 point difference.

The Cardinals had five players reach double figures in the win.  Michael Esser led with 19. Jack Tarrell was next with 14 and Bennett Smith, John Dreischmeier and Wes Kraisinger all netted 11.

Smith buried three triples with Esser, Tarrell and Dreischmeier each getting two. Kaden Washa came off the bench to also add a pair of threes.

Esser put in 15 points the first half to help the Cardinals to a 34-20 lead at intermission. He and Dreischmeier both had a pair of threes the first 18 minutes and Tarrell had one.

The Bulldogs, behind a 15 point effort from Devin Ihm and nine more from Sammy Clary outscored the Cardinals 43-40 in a fast paced second half but it wasn’t enough. Clary finished with 21 for the Bulldogs and Ihm added 17.

The loss was only the third for the Bulldogs who now sit at 13-3.  Highland improved to 10-9.

The Cardinals host Lancaster in a non-conference test Thursday.

SCORE BY HALVES

Ithaca           20   43   63

Highland      34   40   74

BOX SCORE

ITHACA 63: (fg-ft-tp) Barkrem 1-0-2, Salisbury 3-2-8, Pomering 3-0-6, Brocon 3-1-9, Byrnes 0-0-0, Nelson 0-0-0, Clary 7-4-21, Ihm 8-0-17. Totals 25-7/11-63. Fouls-16

HIGHLAND 74: Esser 8-1-19, Smith 4-0-11, Tarrell 4-4-14, Oleson 0-0-0, Washa 2-0-6, Dreischmeier 4-1-11, Kraisinger 4-3-11, Newberry 1-0-2, Shemak 0-0-0. Totals 27-9/15/74. Fouls-14

3 point goals:

I-Clary 3, Brocon 2, Ihm 1

H-Smith 3,   Esser 2, Dreischmeier 2, Tarrell 2, Washa 2