The theme of the season so far for the Cardinal Huskies boys’ basketball team is that one bad quarter is all it takes to seal their fate. That trend continued as they scored only two points in the second quarter leading to a 66-35 loss for their fifth straight defeat against Southeast last Friday evening at Palmyra Township.
“They got more offensive rebounds than we got and more defensive rebounds throughout the game,” said Coach Kyle Deckerd. “We did not take many good shots throughout, we took a couple of good shots but we did not get a lot of good shots early in that second quarter and we just let them run in transition, which is what we didn’t want them to do but we did it anyways.”
The second-year coach acknowledged that the Huskies (2-9, 0-2) would have their work cut out for them this season following the graduation of Troy Domen, who became only the third player in school history to exceed 1,000 points in his varsity career.
Deckerd added that while Cardinal has strived to become a more balanced offense, they still need to learn patience when making the extra pass.
“Sometimes you turn the ball over because you throw a weak pass or a long pass. The kids have really bought into the shot selection,” he noted. “It is just about not hitting that panic button when we feel we need to force it instead of hunkering down and getting a good shot for the team.”
After a promising first period last Saturday, everything unraveled in the second period as Cardinal was outscored by a 16-2 margin, falling into a 26-11 deficit at the half.
Deckerd said that a key element to that rough second quarter was Cardinal’s lack of rebounding, as they were absent two of their tallest players and did not put themselves in good position to clean up the glass. Additionally, Cardinal was late on defensive rotations, which allowed the Pirates to earn eight free throw attempts in the second quarter, shooting six-of-eight from the line.
“I just think we were not stopping the ball, not getting in front of them, late to rotations,” Deckerd said. “There were fouls without a doubt; we were just late. If we were a step earlier, we would have been there in time to not foul them.”
According to Deckerd, the Huskies have taken too long to adjust to when the going gets tough and still need to work on their resolve.
He also acknowledged that the Huskies are a young squad despite being senior-heavy as only senior guards Cal Cimenello and senior Charles Soltis played significant varsity minutes last year as several others were hindered by injury.
Deckerd noted that that lack of experience has made it difficult for Cardinal to hang on to the ball thus far.
Although it was a bad second period, Deckerd said that the game was not lost for the Huskies but they came out of the break with flat energy, losing the third period by a 20-12 margin, falling into a deeper hole at the end of the third period, trailing 46-23.
“At halftime we thought we had a decent chance to speed them up a little bit and go back to how we wanted to play. We came out in the third quarter and we were just flat,” Deckerd said. “It was real hard to bounce back. We thought we were going to do one thing but we just let them do what they wanted to do. They finished the game the way they wanted to.”
Southeast used a well-balanced offensive attack to dominate the game, with three players each reaching double figures while the Huskies only had one score in double digits.
“That is tough to stop,” added Deckerd. “That is what we try to preach. We want multiple guys in double figures, and we weren’t able to do that on Saturday night. Southeast did a good job of sharing the wealth. We were really focused on Cohen Richardson not getting going; he has had some big games recently. He is a heck of a player and they have a good young team. I wish we had a more competitive game.”
Following a road contest against Kinsman Road foe and Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division rival Berkshire on Tuesday evening, Cardinal will travel to play league rival Kirtland in Mentor on Friday night at 6:45 p.m.
