The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG -- Early turnovers and a scoreless second quarter was the beginning of the end for the WP Lady Cardinals as they fell to the DeSales Fighting Irish, 30-41, last Friday night on Kison Court.

The Irish were first to score with two quick baskets from underneath, but WP's Kristin Potter threw up two back-to-back, three-point baskets in the first two minutes to keep the Cards right in it.

The Irish answered with two more baskets and the Cardinals' turnovers were one after the other as the Irish continually picked them off leaving them scoreless for the next 3 minutes.

WP's Dionna Baker put the next two on the board for the Cardinals who went to the juke and jive shooting of Potter for the next two baskets for a 12-9 Cardinal lead with 44 seconds left in the first quarter.

The teams exchanged free throws to finish the quarter out with a 13-10 Cardinal lead.

The Irish kicked off the scoring for the second quarter and put up 11 unanswered points as the Cardinals struggled with offensive rebounds, and being picked off by the Irish while trying to penetrate the key.

It was another case of the second-quarter blues for the Cards as they went into the locker room down, 13-21, at the half.

The Cardinals began the second half with back-toback turnovers from running out the shot clock and setting up camp in the key, and that set the pace for them for the remainder of the night.

They continued to struggle against a more physical Irish defense that weren't given anything up in the key, keeping the Cardinals inside scoring almost non-existent.

It was WP's Ronnie Hulce who finally got a break at the hoop for two and Baker banked one in to pull the Cards within five points of the Irish.

The Irish increased that lead to 10 with foul shots from three Cardinal fouls and a field goal.

Potter came back at them snagging herself a ferocious steal with just seconds left in the third and found Hulce breaking to the bucket at the buzzer for two, ending the third quarter with the Cards down, 22-30.

The Cardinals continued to struggle for control of the game and the ball in the fourth quarter taking minutes to put their next points on the board.

It was WP's Katy Hofer who drew an Irish foul on a put back and sank her two free throws, but not until three minutes had passed.

WP's Hailey Goenen then landed herself an offensive rebound and dished it off to Potter for two to pull the Cards within 27-32 of the Irish with almost 4 minutes left in the game.

It seemed the Cardinals were building momentum going into the last minutes of the game that may have narrowed the gap even more, but a few Cardinal fouls and back-to-back three pointers from the Irish soon took the wind out of their wings.

After four quarters of being pumped around, out rebounded, turning the ball over 26 times, and shooting only 21 percent from the floor, the Cardinals left the court with a 41-30 loss.

Potter led the Cardinals with 12 points and four steals while Baker added 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Saturday night the Cardinals shook it off and took the Tri-City Prep Jaguars into overtime, coming out on top, 69-63.

The Cardinals travel to the Richland next Friday night to face the Liberty Christian Patriots. Tipoff is at 6 p.m.