Cardinals come back to beat Midgettes

WAKEFIELD - Hurley and Wakefield-Marenisco are two of the teams expected to battle it out for the Indianhead Conference East Division title this season and they met up in an early season clash at the Cardinal Gym on Tuesday night.

The Midgettes won the first half, but the Cardinals got on the comeback trail in the second-half and played with a sense of urgency that resulted in a 42-33 victory.

"It was a big win to start out the season," W-M girls coach Pete Yon said. "This is as big a win as we can get right now. Hurley has been so dominant that it was nice to play on par with them."

The Hurley Midgettes have been the gold standard in girls basketball in the area so long that they have won an Indianhead Conference title the last nine years and they had 10 retuning letter-winners this year.

"We really wanted this game," said W-M's Lauren Grace, who was the game top scorer with 17-points, 13 in the second half. "We wanted to start the season out well and this gives us a big-time boost of confidence. Once the nerves went away in the second half, we thought we had a chance to win."

Hurley coach Steve Eder said the game came right down to the end.

"Wakefield-Marenisco's talented, but they are not insurmountable," Eder said. "They were ahead 36-33 in the final 1:15 and we had three players take three shots that were 3s and all three rattled out. That's how it goes. It was a good effort and I'm proud of the girls. They battled from start to finish."

In the first quarter, W-M scored first on a nice give-and-go pass from Kassidee Yon Grace for a score.

But after that, W-M's shooting went cold and Hurley's MaKayla Wolfe and Gabby Pecotte splashed 3s to put the Midgettes up 10-8 after one quarter.

There wasn't much scoring in the second quarter until Kirkie Pecotte drained another triple and Wolfe went the length of the court for a lay-in and made her foul shot for an old-fashioned 3. When Wolfe was fouled on a drive to the basket and made two free throws, Hurley went up 17-8 with 3:42 remaining.

W-M's shooting was still ice-cold, but there were also a lot of turnovers and loose balls going Hurley's way.

The Midgettes led 19-12 at the half and momentum was definitely on their side.

"We were tentative, nervous not hitting shots, first game, Hurley rivalry and we we're getting out-hustled," Yon said. "I jacked them up at halftime and told them to start playing and get aggressive."

Yon went a little old school on his team and it worked.

At the 5:54 mark, Grace battled three Hurley girls for an offensive rebound and put it back in and made a foul shot to draw within 20-15. Hallee Yon drove the lane for a pull-up jumper, but Maria Swartz sank two free throws.

With 3:32 left in the quarter, Grace began to assert herself. She took an inbound pass and made a seven-footer and then dribbled along the baseline and scored on a lay-up. The game was tied at 23-23 with 1:07 remaining.

But Hurley doesn't just let teams take games away form them and Natalie Moon drove around her defender to score with 18.7 seconds left and the Midgettes led 25-23 at the quarter.

Moon scored twice to start the fourth quarter to get back in control at 31-23, but the Cardinals answered back with baskets from Hallee Yon, freshman Saundra Libertoski and then Grace made a steal and dribbled nearly the length of the floor to score. W-M was only down 31-30.

"When we nearly tied it up, I thought we can do this," Pete Yon said. "And I think they realized they could rely on their teammates."

And then Darienne Korpi drilled a 10-footer from the baseline to give W-M the lead, 32-31.

Down the stretch, the Cardinals out-scored Hurley 10-2 and got two scores from Grace, one from Korpi and Halle Yon along with two free throws from the point guard.

The Cardinals out-scored the Midgettes 19-8 in the final quarter.

Hurley won the junior varsity game, 37-24.

Hurley (0-2, 0-1 IC) takes the short trip to Ironwood for another Indianhead Conference game on Friday at 7:15 p.m.

The Cardinals (1-0, 1-0 IC) travel to Bessemer on Friday for another conference battle on Friday at 7:15.

Hurley - Gabby Pecotte 3, Natalie Moon 9, Dani Irons 2, MaKayla Wolfe 7, Maria Swartz 3, Kirkie Pecotte 7, Reggie Kelly 2. FTs: 8-10, Fouls: 13, Fouled out: none, 3-pointers: Gabby Pecotte 1, Wolfe 1, Kirkie Pecotte 1.

W-M - Darienne Korpi 8, Hallee Yon 8, Kassidee Yon 2, Lauren Grace 17, Saundra Libertoski 2, Rachel Obradovich 5. FTs: 6-10, Fouls: 10, Fouled out: none, 3-pointers: none.

Hurley 10 19 25 33

W-M 8 12 23 42