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FIRST TIME IN SCHOOL HISTORY
The Columbus Cardinals punched their ticket to the State Championship game after they defeated the Onalaska Wildcats 8462 Tuesday night in Houston.
“It has been an unreal year in Columbus right now,” Cardinals head basketball coach said. “We have experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows and truly I think this is God’s work right now.”
The Cards started the game aggressively and did not allow the Wildcats to find any sort of comfort in the opening minutes. The second they touched the ball there was a Cardinal in their face forcing them to make a bad play.
The Cards defense came ready to play in the semi-final round of the playoffs they knew what was at stake and they handled their business. The Wildcats shot a lot of threes, so Bohac made sure his team was well prepared for that matchup.
“The good thing is that has kind of been our philosophy these past couple of games. In our game against London, they shot a lot of threes too, so we put an emphasis on the rebounding and limiting their second chance points,” Bohac said.
Leading the way in the rebounding department was Brody Tride who snatched up 10 rebounds in the victory. He did not operate alone though Braylon Fisher, Rylan Carruthers and Grayson Rigdon all had seven rebounds each.
After the game Bohac credited his team for taking pride in winning the rebound battle. He said he was super proud of all his kids for working their tails off and even had some high praise for Tribe.
“I knew he was going to be special since last year,” Bohac said. “I brought him up halfway through the year last year because I knew he was going to be a player I would have to rely on this year.”
The stout defense led to the Cards holding a 45-29 lead going into halftime and there was some cause for concern as the game went into its break. Towards the end of the half Camdon Pitchford was limping slightly and went to the locker room almost immediately.
Cardinal fans held their breath as they awaited the status of their starting point guard and thankfully, he came back to start the third quarter. Pitchford left the game once again in the fourth quarter with a noticeable limp but returned shortly after.
He finished the game with 13 points and 10 assists in a gutsy and tough performance from the Cardinals point guard.
“That just shows his demeanor, his toughness and he is always willing to do anything he can to help the team win,” Bohac said. “He had a couple of very frustrating games recently and he was not playing to his standard and so he stayed after practice worked on his shot and I kept telling him ‘It’s coming, just keep playing your game’ so it was good to see him break though tonight.”
The Cards now ride towards the Alamodome where they went toe-totoe with Tatum as they try to win their second State Championship this school year.
