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Terry Murnen liked what he saw from his Cardinal Stritch girls basketball team during Monday's 51-41 loss to visiting Swanton.
The first-year coach watched the Cardinals dig themselves out of a double-digit halftime deficit to tie the game at 40-all midway through the fourth quarter, before running out of gas.
“We had to gamble to get the ball back, and (Swanton) went to the foul line and knocked down some shots,” said Murnen, whose team got 10 points from senior guard Amanda Sinay. “Yes, it was a 10-point loss, but the kids battled and got back into the game. We were down 15 at halftime and the kids responded real well in the second half and we made a run at them.”
Stritch's effort came on the heels of last Thursday's 37-36 win over Danbury, where junior point guard Kady Schneider converted a three-point play with 3.1 seconds left to give the Cardinals the home victory.
Murnen admitted his squad still has a lot to work on – the Cardinals (3-14, 3-7 TAAC) are shooting just 23 percent from the field – but he's been much happier with the team's effort.
“Within the last month they have realized if we play hard, good things are going to happen for us,” Murnen said. “We just haven't had any consistency from the early part of the season up until five, six games ago. The kids are gaining more confidence. We're getting good shots, we're just not putting the ball in the basket. We can miss just about anything.
“The kids are working hard and they're a great group of young ladies. We're averaging over 10 steals a game and we're playing hard defensively, we just aren't converting. If you could turn those 10 steals into 20 points, that would be super for us. They have not quit on me, and that's all I can ask of them.”
Schneider leads the Cardinals in scoring with a 6.1 average, followed by senior post Marissa Zaborski (5.8) and junior guard Marisa Katafiasz (4.7). Stritch's top rebounders are junior Ally Niehaus and Zaborski, who both average around seven rebounds per game.
While it has been a frustrating season for everyone involved, Murnen maintained that the Cardinals have stayed focused and continually strive to get better. He said last week's comeback win over Danbury “spoke volumes” about the team's determination.
“We got down early and in previous games when we got down, bad goes to worse,” Murnen said.
We just struggled to get back into games. We got down a couple times and battled back against Danbury. As a team they are finally jelling a little bit and playing better together. When an opposing coach tells you after a game that your kids play extremely hard, as a coach that makes you feel really good. And the girls have gotten that compliment quite a few times this season.”
The Cardinals face ninth-ranked Genoa in the first round of the Division III sectional tournament on Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. at Bowsher High School. The winner faces Ottawa Hills on Feb. 26.
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