Lady Cardinals overcome slow start in 1A playoffs

FORT DEFIANCE

The senior class on the St. Michael girls’ basketball team hit another milestone on Wednesday night.

The four seniors earned another first-round win in the Arizona 1A girls state basketball tournament.

The soon-to-be graduates are now 3-for-4 in first round state playoff games as the No. 6 seed Lady Cardinals outlasted No. 11 St. David by a 37-29 count at the Bee Hóldzil Fighting Scouts Event Center.

With the eight-point win, St. Michael advances into the state quarterfinals and they will play at No. 3 seed Salome (15-0) on Saturday at 2 p.m.

And while they led for most of Wednesday’s game, the Cardinals struggled to get things going as they led 10-4 after one quarter of play.

With both squads putting in four points each in the second, the halftime score was 14-8 in favor of St. Michael.

“As you noticed we were making a lot of turnovers,” Lady Cardinal power forward Gabriella Simpson said.

St. Michael finished with 20 such turnovers. Head coach Carl Adams attributed those miscues to the recent injury of Cardinal point guard Kalynn Smith, who hurt her wrist during Tuesday’s practice.

Despite her injured wrist, the St. Michael point guard finished with seven points on 3-of-10 shooting.

She was one of six players to score as the Cardinals were led by Simpson who had a game-best 15 points. Sophomore Cameron Hanley added eight.

Simpson got most of her points by attacking the basket and getting to the free-throw line, as she went 9-of-14 at the charity line.

“She knows her job, and she does her job,” Adams said. “I mean, (she’s) phenomenal. We’re definitely going to miss her, and this is not, you know, her senior year and all of a sudden she’s just playing good.

“It’s been every year, from her freshman year to now,” he added. “She is just one of those players that you get in your school that … you know, is naturally going to be an athlete, and she’s great.”

Defensively, St. Michael pressured the visiting Lions into 23 turnovers, but they had a tough time converting on the other end of the floor.

The Cardinals made 11-of-53 shots for 21% with most of those missed shots in the first half.

But late in the third quarter, the Cardinals used a 7-0 run to open up a 27-15 cushion.

The Cardinals scored four straight points to start the fourth as Smith’s 2-point shot earned them a 31-17 advantage with 4:51 to go.

“We were horrible in the first half, (but) we started to change things around in the second half,” Adams said, while noting that the halftime pep talk involved the team’s poor shooting.

“We were like 4-for-28 inside,” he said. “I told them that you guys need to focus in on your shots in the inside.”

From beyond the arc, the Cardinals went 1-for-15 with the lone 3-pointer coming from Smith.

“In practice, we’re hitting 3s left and right,” Adams said while noting that Smith, Cameron Hanley and Autumn Shirley are normally consistent from the outside.

“We just had an off night on the 3-point line,” he said.

And although Salome has compiled a 15-0 record thus far, Adams feels that his group can get past the Frogs.

“I think we can get to the Final Four,” he said. “We just got to stay focused game by game. We’re not worried about trying to get to the championship game. We are worried about our next opponent that we have to play.”

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