C3D2GBB: Woodland gets defensive in 2H for W over hot Bloomfield

BLOOMFIELD – There weren’t very many girl’s basketball squads that entered the 2023-24 postseason on Monday playing better than Bloomfield.

The Wildcats, who not long ago struggled to win any games, had won 11 of their previous 12 games prior to their MSHSAA Class 3 District 2 opener against Woodland, and they had done so with an ever-improving offense.

That positive mojo was stymied over the final 16 minutes, as the Cardinals dominated the hosts defensively and ran off with a 53-33 victory at the historic Bloomfield High School Gymnasium.

“They are pretty lengthy,” second-year Bloomfield coach Emily Watkins said of Woodland’s defense. “They knew who our shooter was.”

Everyone in the iconic facility knew about the shooting prowess of Wildcat sophomore Kendall Phillips, but no one more so than veteran Woodland coach Paul Lynch, who made containing Phillips a priority.

“We wanted to key on (Phillips),” Lynch said. “She is their best 3-point shooter.”

The Cardinal defense limited Phillips to just one made shot, a 3-pointer in the third quarter, but that eight-minute stretch proved critical to Woodland’s victory.

The Cardinals held a slim 20-16 margin at halftime, but the Wildcats (16-9) bolted out of the locker room following halftime and grabbed a 21-20 advantage.

The second half wasn’t two minutes old before Lynch had seen enough and called a timeout.

“Bloomfield played us very well in the first time that we played them,” Lynch said of the Cardinals’ 51-42 win in December. “It’s a home game for them. They have a big crowd. They’re used to this court. I just felt like we were really sluggish.”

Woodland shook off any of that, as it outscored Bloomfield 17-9 in the period, which gave Lynch’s kids some breathing room for the remainder of the night.

“In the first half,” Lynch said, “we weren’t really crisp in asserting ourselves like we need to at this time of the year.

“So, I challenged them to step up.”

No Cardinal player did so better than junior Mallary Barks in that quarter.

Barks scored 10 of her team-leading 28 points in the period.

“Some of our key girls stepped up,” Lynch said, “and decided that they didn’t want their season to end.”

Barks had 22 points in the second half and Cardinal freshman Addyson Massa added seven second-half points, as she totaled 10 on the night.

The Wildcats, who set a program mark for success this year, were held to 17 points in the second half.

“When you take (Phillips) away,” Watkins explained of her team’s offensive struggle, “when the other girls had been looking to her so much, it’s hard to think ‘OK, what do I do now?’”

Wildcat junior Kaelynn Conner paced her team with 10 points while junior Abigail Heaton added nine points in the loss.

The Cardinals (18-9) matched the most wins as a program since the 18-win team in 2013 and moves on to play No. 1 seed Saxony Lutheran (16-8) on Wednesday at 6 p.m.