Winning streak continues for GHV

The Garner-Hayfield/Ventura boys kept their winning streak alive and picked up two more North Iowa Conference wins last week to move their record to 13-4 in the league and 14-4 overall.

GHV 70, North Union 54

Despite a slow start, the GHV boys found their stride and defeated North Union (5-9, 6-9), 70-54, on Tuesday, Jan. 27.

The Warriors came out ready to play and jumped to an early 10-7 lead in the first quarter.  The Cardinals knotted the score at 11-11 with 2:05 left in the first quarter.  North Union went on a six point run to end the quarter with a 17-13 lead.

The second quarter was all Cards, as their shots started to fall. GHV outscored the Warriors 25-15 in the second quarter and took a 38-32 lead into the half.

“I liked how we drew fouls on their better players and got to the free throw line,” said Coach Joe Albertson.

The Cardinals went on another run in the third quarter to widen the lead, 53-39.  The bench wrapped up the game with a GHV win, 70-54.

Balanced scoring helped the Cardinal effort, with three players scoring in double figures.  Holden Hutcheson led the team with 20 points, followed closely by Sam Cataldo and Jonathan O’Connor with 19 and 18 points respectively.  O’Connor was 3/6 from the three-point line and was a perfect 3/3 from the free throw line.  

“Jonathan was our weapon from the perimeter and Holden and Sam got it going on the inside,” said Albertson.

Rounding out the scoring was Turner Albertson with eight points, Payton James had three and Logan Ryerson contributed two points.

Cataldo was the defensive leader, collecting nine rebounds, two steals and nine blocked shots.

O’Connor had five rebounds, four assists and four steals.

Albertson led the team in assists with five.  He also grabbed two steals.

GHV 58, Bishop-Garrigan 42

The Cardinals did a great job of getting in the paint and keeping Bishop-Garrigan out of it, as they cruised to a 58-42 victory over the Golden Bears on Friday night, Jan. 30, at home.

“We challenged shots well on defense and held them to a low field goal percentage,” said Coach Joe Albertson.  “We can be really successful if we can keep doing that.”

Bishop-Garrigan opened the first quarter with back-to-back three pointers to take an early 6-0 lead before the Cards got rolling and collected nine unanswered points.  GHV had a 13-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Cardinals continued to stretch the lead in the second quarter, outscoring the Golden Bears, 12-7, to take a 10-point lead into halftime, 25-15.

B-G again came out strong, but dropped off fast.  They scored five points right away to come to within five points, 25-20, but failed to score any more in the third quarter.  Meanwhile, the Cardinal scoring machine got rolling behind the hot hand of Sam Cataldo, who scored eight baskets, contributing to the 38-20 score at the end of the third quarter.

Bishop-Garrigan connected on back-to-back threes to pull to within eight, 48-40, with 2:38 remaining in the game.  That was as close as it got, as the Cardinals easily defeated B-G, 58-42.

Sam Cataldo had a fantastic double-double in the game, recording 20 points and 12 rebounds.  He also had two blocked shots and one steal.

Logan Ryerson also hit double figures with 12 points, to go along with his six rebounds and two assists.

“Logan may have had his best shooting game of the season,” said Albertson.  “We will need to have balanced scoring down the stretch.”

Payton James and Jonathan O’Connor both scored nine points.  O’Connor also led the team in assists with five.  

The team hosts Algona on Saturday, Feb. 7.