Girls basketball: Cardinals learn much about selves in early-season victory

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By DAVID BOSSICK
david.bossick@lee.net
Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:49 PM CST

Chippewa Falls put a girls basketball team together in less than two weeks.

Those same girls worked to knock off Medford to open the season in a nonconference game Thursday, 63-50.

The Cardinals got leadership and toughness out of their upper classmen and good play from the underclassmen in the game, too.

“Coming into this game, I had to see who would step up and play,” Chippewa Falls coach Jeff Dahl said. “I think any given night, we’re going to have somebody out here who will step up for us.

“We’re still looking and maybe we had the adrenaline pumping tonight more than the other girls.”

After a slow first half where the Raiders took a 17-16 lead, Chi-Hi used a 10-0 run to take a lead it wouldn’t give up early in the third quarter.

Megan Schnobrich hit for half of those points, including a 3-pointer with Jamie Bluemel scoring a 3-pointer and Heather Hodnett scoring on two free throws. Hodnett helped to spur on Chi-Hi’s rally with plays in the paint, scrapping for loose balls and rebounds or passing to open teammates.

The rally helped to force a much taller Medford team to play the Cardinals’ game by the time the fourth quarter rolled around.

“Any time, when we’re (shorter) like that, you figure that’s where they’re going to put it,” Dahl said. “Our girls put bodies on them defensively and we had a few letdowns where we let them inside on us defensively.”

The offense clicked in the third quarter and exploded in the fourth quarter. Chi-Hi had 33 points in all to close out Medford.

“I hadn’t quite seen it in practice. The girls picked up offensively off of it. The game plan was to make them run and make them make mistakes and that’s what we did,” Dahl said.

One of the big keys was the passing from the exterior to the interior of the offense and back out again for open shots. Chi-Hi took 21 shots from beyond the 3-point line and connected on seven of them.

“We knew we had some shooters from outside, but with the lack of varsity experience, could they get it off on time?” Dahl said.

He got his answer from five different sources as each hit a 3-pointer.

Dahl also got an answer to another question: how will a team with three sophomores and a freshman, Rachel McDonald, adapt to playing varsity?

“I’m really pleased with how my underclassmen came up and how my seniors came through,” Dahl said. “Some leaders came through.”

The dagger came from Bluemel with 2:18 showing on the clock. Bluemel pulled up from the baseline with a smooth jumper that gave Chi-Hi a 10-point lead.

Chi-Hi was led by Schnobrich with 15 followed by Lindsay Gaber and Blumel, each with 10.

The Cardinals sprinted into their season and home opener with a little more than a week of practice under their belts. The next game, though, is Dec. 5 against Big River Conference foe River Falls.

“Because we had to get a squad together and get many offenses together. . ., now we have time work on basic stuff, fundamentals,” Dahl said. “We need a lot of work on fundamentals.”