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The Columbus Cardinals’ varsity basketball team hung near the top of the district standings for basically the entire district season. They started with a huge win streak that had them holding the first-place spot in the standings. A victory earlier in the season against legitimate challenger, Edna, put the Cards in a position to potentially close out the season in first place. However, Columbus would go on to lose two games in a row to lose their hold on the district lead. Last week, the Cards held pace in the standings with a big win against Palacios that set up a rematch against Edna that would decide the district title. Edna’s offense exploded in the title game and clinched the district championship on their own home court.
Vs Palacios, W, 61-39 With losses in two of their previous three games, the Cards came into their Tuesday night matchup against the Sharks with plenty of focus and energy as they needed to win out for a chance at the district championship. A win against Palacios would set up the clinching title fight against Edna on Friday night. Columbus went on to score over 60 points in one of their better offensive outings of the season. Eight different Cardinals scored as the offense created easy looks that they converted at a high clip. The team had a gamehigh 22 points in the third quarter as they extended their blowout. The only period in which they scored less than 17 points was in the fourth when the game was already well out of hand.
The Cards’ top scorers in this game showed off great range with the deep shot as their main weapon of choice. Cristian Reyna led all scorers with 19 points after hitting three 3-pointers. Next leading scorer, Colton Pitchford, nailed four treys on the way to 14 points. Trevor Berger hit one of his own and rounded out the top-3 scorers with ten points.
Vs Edna, L, 67-50
Entering Friday’s game against Edna, the Cards had done everything they could do to keep themselves within reach of the title despite suffering those crucial defeats. Everything came down to the final game of the season as the Cards travelled to Edna to face the Cowboys. While Columbus carried over some of their success on offense from earlier in the week, their defense could not handle the offensive onslaught from the eventual district champions. Despite being outscored in every quarter, the Cards made each period competitive. They were outscored by a game high of six in the fourth quarter and had two other periods finish with just a three-point disadvantage between the teams. However, the deficit slowly built up as each period passed which eventually added up to the double-digit defeat.
Cristian Reyna had another strong outing with 14 points to lead the Cardinals. Trevor Berger added 13 points of his own while Colton Pitchford and Zane Barnes combined for 13 points together.
