By JACK CLARK
jackclark@mvn.net
WOODLAWN - The Lady Cardinals of Woodlawn High School won their home opener, by defeating the Sesser-Valier Lady Red Devils, 43-28, on Wednesday evening.
The victory runs Woodlawn’s record to 6-0.
The Lady Cardinals finished the first eight minutes with a 12-2 lead over Sesser. Woodlawn coach Eric Helbig said that his team took advantage of their situation.
“We got off to a pretty good start,” said Helbig. “We contested a lot of shots.”
With the Lady Cardinal defense controlling the boards, the Lady Red Devils could only get off one shot per trip down the floor in the games first two quarters.
“In the first half, we got almost every single, defensive rebound. They didn’t have a single second shot. And that was key for us,” Helbig said. “We had talked about that before the game and then we executed it well.”
But, all of that rebounding wasn’t necessarily the result of one team being better-conditioned than the other, but rather a defensive strategy that went according to plan.
“As far as rebounding goes, it wasn’t as much athleticism as it was position,” Helbig said. “We just boxed-out and they couldn’t go anywhere. The rebound just happened to come right to us several times.”
Helbig also noted that the Lady Red Devils provided a defense that his team had yet to experience this season.
“They play exceptional defense,” said Helbig. “But, they are going to have a hard time scoring this year.”
The game also showed Helbig what he considered to be flaws in his teams ability to score, despite a 15-point margin of victory.
“We’ve got a ways to go. We’ve still got some problems on offense,” said Helbig. “We’ve got good offensive players, but we still haven’t executed quite like I would like to. Sesser took us out of some things offensively that a few weeks down the road, we should be more fluid with.”
Mallory Hapeman led all scorers with 18 points for Woodlawn. Alexa Capps netted 17, while Kinzie Verhines and Leah Sutton each added four points.
Lorena Marlo led Sesser-Valier with 12 points. Cheryl Delbene finished with five points. Kate Laird and Stephanie Faulkner each had four, while Ashley Slack had three.
The Lady Cardinals host Louisville-North Clay in another varsity-only contest at 6:15 p.m. this evening.
