Cardinals Teams Split with Panthers

BEN MADRID ENTERPRISE-LEADER Farmington forward Tori Hamley jumps out to contest a shot against Clarksville. The Lady Cardinals defeated the Panthers, 50-40, on Feb. 18.
BEN MADRID ENTERPRISE-LEADER Farmington forward Tori Hamley jumps out to contest a shot against Clarksville. The Lady Cardinals defeated the Panthers, 50-40, on Feb. 18.

FARMINGTON -- The Farmington Lady Cardinals (19-4, 9-2), who are hovering near the top of the conference standings continue to have success in the 5A classification after dispatching the Clarksville Panthers 50-40 last Wednesday in a contest played in Farmington.

Farmington's boys have found the sledding to be a little rougher after their move up in 5A West fell to 3-8 (12-12 overall) in conference play after suffering a 66-57 defeat to the Panthers.

Girls Farmington 50, Clarksville 40

The athletic Lady Cardinals never seemed in jeopardy of losing to the pesky Panthers in the day's early contest.

"They (Clarksville) are a very difficult team to guard," said lady Cardinal coach Brad Johnson. "That being said; we made plays when we needed to, we hit free-throws when we needed to, and we gave ourself a chance to win that game on the defensive end."

The offensive play of Maria McPherson and Kristi DuChanois, who had 6 and 4 points respectively in the opening period, allowed the Cardinals to stake a 16-6 lead after one period.

Farmington lead by as much as 14 points in the second frame, however a Clarksville 3-pointer sent the teams into the locker room with the Cardinals holding on to a 22-11 advantage.

The Panthers cut the lead to a manageable 7-point deficit early in the third frame, however a bucket from McPherson combined with 10 consecutive Cardinal points from Trish O' Connell, who up until that point had not recorded any digits in Farmington's ledger, helped the hometown girls wage a 12-2 run which swelled their margin to 36-19.

"In the most intense moments, late in games she has really been able to accelerate her game to a different level on the offensive end," said Johnson about O' Connell's performance.

Sisters Tahlon and Tayton Hopkins scored 5 and 4 points respectively in the final stanza, with Tayton's 2 freebies from the charity-stripe with 10 ticks on the clock giving the Cardinals their final 50-40 margin of victory.

McPherson joined O' Connell in double-digits with 10 points, Both Hopkins' finished with 9 points; DuChanois, 6; Taylor Smith, 2; and Tori Hamley, 1.

Boys Clarksville 66, Farmington 57

The Cardinals and the Panthers entered the fourth period of their contest with an even 42-42 score; unfortunately in the final period, Farmington had no answer for Clarksville's Casey Benton, who scored 16 of his game high 24 points in the final frame.

A 3-pack of trifectas from Skyler Barnes in the opening frame allowed the Cardinals to build an 18-13 lead after one period. Barnes finished as the Cardinals leading scorer with 16 points. Matt Wilson stroked a triple early in the second period giving Farmington an 8-point advantage, however Clarksville clawed their way back to within 2 points, at 27-25, going into intermission.

In the third period the teams had 4 ties and 10 lead changes and in the waning seconds of the stanza Jeremy Mueller and Matt Thomas sandwich a pair of 3-balls around a Panther trifecta which gave Farmington a slim 42-40 advantage. But, Clarksville answered with a bucket which tied the score at 42 going into the final period when the Cardinals simply could not slow Benton down. Five consecutive points by Benton with nearly two minutes off the clock gave Clarksville a 49-44 lead and from that point on the Panthers never trailed again.

"It just comes down to us needing to make shots," said Cardinal coach Beau Thompson. "With four guards in the game we ought to shoot the ball better, but we didn't. That's the way it goes."

Mueller followed Barnes in the ledger with 11 points, Thomas, Wilson and Flint Oxford all had 8 points, while Mack Spears concluded the scoring with 6 points.

Sports on 02/25/2015