Cardinals give Redbirds battle, come up short

The first half determined that there were two pretty good girls basketball teams battling in a non-conference match-up for the Aaron Lancaster Memorial Game at Highland Saturday.

At halftime SWAL member Darlington and Six Rivers squad Highland both had 23 points after their names on the scoreboard.

But then the Redbirds methodically pulled away in the final 18 minutes and claimed a 59-43 win in the benefit game for scholarships.  The game turned in Darlington’s favor with much of the credit going to Maddie Gratz who drilled a pair of three pointers and accounted for 19 of her 21 points.

“We lost track of her,”  Highland coach Josh Tarrell said.  

Part of the reason Gratz got open was due to trio of three pointers her teammate, Sadie Goebel, buried the first half.  She had 12 points for the game, all on three pointers.

Lilly Ritchie also deserved attention as she scored all six of her points the first half.

“Goebel and Ritchie were very tough to handle early in the game,” noted Tarrell. “They forced us to pay attention to them early.”

With Gratz leading the way they outscored the Cardinals 36-20 for the win.

The Cardinals were not without their offensive surge. Sophia Tarrell led the Cardinals with 19 points, netting 11 down the stretch. She got two baskets from long range during her string.  

“Sophia led us and kept us in it,” Tarrell said.

Adilyn Esser also reached double figures for Highland with 12 points.

“They have more depth and we got tired late in the game,” Tarrell said.  “They are long and their size got to us. And they got hot the second half.”

“We put up a good fight,” Tarrell pointed out. “It was a good test and we need to learn from it and get better.”

SCORE BY HALVES

Darlington     23    36   59

Highland        23    20   43

BOX SCORE

DARLINGTON 59: (fg-ft-tp) Hartwig 1-3-6, Norgard 1-0-2, Wiegel 2-0-4, Winslow 0-0-0, Winkers 1-0-2, Gratz 8-3-21, Ritchie 3-0-6, Goebel 4-0-12, Edgerton 0-0-0, Buschor 1-1-4, O’Brien 1-0-2  Totals 22-7/12-59. Fouls-12

HIGHLAND 43: Laufenberg 1-0-3, Bollant 0-0-0, S. Tarrell 5-7-19. Esser 4-2-12, Fritsch 0-0-0, L. Tarrell 0-0-0. Kohout 0-0-0. Bedward  0-0-0, Oleson 4-0-9. Michek 0-0-0, Biba 0-0-0. Totals 14-9/12-43. Fouls-11

3 point goals:

D-Goebel 4, Gratz 2, Hartwig 1, Buschor 1

H-S. Tarrell 2, Esser 2, Laufenberg 1, Oleson 1