Cardinal girls work to put complete games together

The GHV girls started the week with a loss, but bounced back with a pair of wins against North Iowa Conference opponents.  The Cardinals are now 12-5 overall and 11-5 in the league.  

Forest City 46, GHV 36

A slow start doomed the Cardinals on the road at Forest City Tuesday, Jan. 20. 

“Against quality teams on the road you have to play as close to perfect as you can.  Our inability to execute our defensive game plan in the first half and our ineffectiveness around the basket in the second half proved to be the difference in the game,” said Coach Matt Erpelding.  

The Cards had no answer for Forest City’s Hannah Anderson in the first half.  The freshman scored 15 of Forest City’s 21 first half points.  At the same time, GHV struggled to find  an offense that was effective, said the coach. “We made adjustments on both ends of the floor that were effective in the second half, but it simply wasn’t enough.”

Despite the rough start the Cards were down by only seven in the first half, 21-14.  

Erpelding said the defense was better in the second half, but his team still struggled to get their shots to fall.  “We also did a sub par job on the glass which didn’t help our cause.”

Hannah Lau had 12 points and six rebounds to lead the Cards.  Emily Spilman and Sydney Younge, along with Grace Tusha off the bench, had six points apiece.  Payton Bamrick scored four and Tiara VanGerpen put in two points.

Mackenzie Haag didn’t get on the scoreboard, but was valuable on defense with four blocked shots and four steals.  She also dished out three assists.  

“I was very proud of my girls’ second half performance in terms of executing our halftime adjustments in that we hadn’t practiced the things we did on either end of the floor but they executed very well considering,” added the coach.

GHV 66, B-K 43

The girls came back from a disappointing loss with a 23-point victory over Belmond-Klemme Friday, Jan. 23.

The Cards got off to a slow start defensively, but had a great second quarter on both ends of the floor to go ahead 38-26 at halftime.  The third quarter was again cool, but solid play in the final frame lifted the Cards to the lopsided win.

“We shot the ball very well from behind the arc (8/14) with four different girls making shots,” said Coach Erpelding.  “We got very good minutes off the bench from the likes of Payton, Tiara, Sydney, Miranda, Taryn, and Ashlee.  If we can continue to shoot the ball from the perimeter anywhere as close as we did in this game we will be very successful as that will open up things for our posts.”

Senior Emily Spilman paced the team in scoring with 18-points, as well as seven rebounds, four assists and a steal.  Mackenzie Haag was also in double figures with 13 points and five rebounds.

Hannah Lau contributed eight points and six rebounds.  Jillian Heitland and Tiara VanGerpen had seven points apiece.  Payton Bamrick scored six points, Sydney Younge four, Ashlee Diaz two and Grace Tusha one.

GHV 61, North Iowa 35

The 61-35 final score doesn’t tell the story of GHV’s game with North Iowa Saturday.  Halftime adjustments broke open a 24-21 game at halftime and turned it into a decisive win.

“Again we made some adjustments at halftime and the girls did a good job putting them into place,” said Coach Erpelding.  

Defensively the Cards held their opponents to four points in the third quarter which allowed GHV to put the game out of reach.  

“We were able to take advantage of our tremendous size advantage as Grace, Sydney, and Hannah all had great games,” said the coach.  Hannah Lau led the team with 19 points.  Grace Tusha had 16 and Sydney Younge poured in 13 points. 

“Again we got very solid minutes off the bench, as several girls are taking advantage of the minutes they are getting.  We have been looking for some girls to step up off the bench to allow us to keep our top seven a little fresher so we can be more effective late in games.  As we approach tournament play it is great to see us get that kind of production from our bench,” added Erpelding.

Starters Jillian Heitland scored three points, Mackenzie Haag and Jillian Heitland each scored two.  Miranda Jackson, Tiara VanGerpen and Taryn Carolus came off the bench to score two points apiece.

“We have two very tough games next week.  We need to be a little more effective defensively in the first half in those games or we will find ourselves in a tough situation,” said Erpelding.  Tuesday GHV was scheduled to play at North Union.  Friday they will host Bishop Garrigan and Tuesday, Feb. 3, they will be at unbeaten Osage.