Playing on the road led to more success for the St. Mary’s girls basketball team of late, as the Cardinals topped Marion Jan. 4 on the Bears home floor but fell the week prior to Chester.

Kelly Michel scored 18 points for the Cardinals in the game and helped open up a 21-11 halftime lead that they would not relinquish.

“This win was a confidence booster for our girls,”said Josh Lebrun, head coach of the Cardinals. “Each of the players made

contributions to seal the win. We still need to work on eliminating so many silly turnovers but overall I was happy with the play of the girls.”

Other standout performances by the Cardinals were Lexie LeBrun with 7 rebounds and Amber Hansen with 4 assists.

St. Mary’s shot 63 percent from the field, making 19 out of 30 attempts.
Despite using a full court press for much of the game against Chester, the Cardinals lost to the Flyers at home 39-12 Dec. 28.

The Cardinals kept pace with the Flyers for much of the game and trailed by only 1 point at the half. But a hot-shooting second half by Chester’s Erin Benson ultimately led to St. Mary’s demise.

Benson converted on three consecutive three-point shots in the fourth quarter and opened up a 6-point Flyer lead.

“I felt that we played really good defense and put a lot of pressure on them with our full court presses,” said Josh Lebrun, head coach of the Cardinals. “The key to them winning the game was that we allowed their best shooter to get open shots late in the game – and she made them.”

Benson led all scorers with 24 points.

The Cardinals’ offense shot just 29 percent from the field, converting on 12 of 42 shots, and was led by Kelly Michel with 10 points. Amber Hansen also contributed 5 points for St. Mary’s.