Cardinals hand Rams first loss to advance to Lady Devils Invitational finals

CHAFFEE — Third-seeded Woodland outlasted the second-seeded Scott City Rams in a defensive battle Monday night at Chaffee High School to advance to the Lady Devils Invitational Tournament championship.

The Cardinals (4-1) buckled down defensively in the second half, outscoring the Rams 25-19 after trailing 11-9 at halftime to hand Scott City its first loss.

Woodland coach Paul Lynch expressed pride in his team's effort and desire to get better as the season progresses.

"I'm real proud of this group. We don't have a lot of numbers, but we've got a lot of heart," Lynch said. "These young ladies are improving each game, they're buying into their role in our system and I'm real proud that we were able to pull a victory out tonight."

Lynch credited his players for their ball movement and aggressiveness in the second half.

"We started moving the ball a little bit better in the second half," Lynch said. "We started finding the open girl and attacking the basket a little bit more than we did in the first half, and it kind of got us to the free-throw line and gave us an opportunity to win."

Leading by just two points, Woodland junior Maci McIntyre hit two key free throws in the final minutes to put the game away. She finished with four points, all of which she scored in the fourth quarter.

"We preach every day about free throws. We've talked about how free throws don't win all the games but they win the close ones," Lynch said. "(McIntyre's) not big in stature, but she's huge at heart and she lays it on the line every night. She gets in there and mixes it up and I was real proud that she was able to step to the line and knock those free throws down."

Despite the game being a defensive slugfest, Cardinals junior Mallory Barks lit up the scoreboard offensively with a game-high 18 points. Barks hit two 3-pointers and finished 2-of-4 from the free-throw line.

"Mallory has been clutch for us since her freshman year and she stepped up big last year," Lynch said. "I'm really proud of her the way she's stepped into a leadership role this year. She hit some big shots for us in that second half to kind of give us the lead and they had to adjust a little bit defensively."

While Woodland's defense held Scott City senior Gracie Karrenbrock to just five points on the night, Rams junior Lilyan Landis picked up the slack with 17 points.

"She's a great leader," Scott City coach Cindy Henry said of Landis. "She's got a special ability of athleticism that brings a whole different dynamic to our team."

With the victory, the Cardinals advance to the championship game where they will face top-seeded Kelly, a team they beat 51-48 on November 30, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

According to Lynch, limiting turnovers will be the key to picking up a second straight win over the Hawks — who beat Meadow Heights 65-39 to advance to the title game.

"We're going to take care of the ball. We had way too many turnovers against Kelly last week when we played them," Lynch said. "They're a solid, outstanding team, but we were able to make a few more plays than they were. But we've got to take care of the ball better against them on Thursday, and if we do that, knock down some shots and rebound we will have a chance."

Scott City falls to 5-1 with the loss and will play Meadow Heights (3-2) for third place at 6 p.m. Thursday.

"We're going to have to come back and practice, regroup, refocus and do the things we know that we do well," Henry said.