WP Sinks Touchet

WAITSBURG - The Cardinals were already looking ahead to Saturday's tough away game against Asotin. But first there were the Touchet Indians Tuesday night, by now a mere bump in the road to one of the two teams' best-ever basketball seasons.

The Lady Cardinals demolished the Touchet team 53-18 with many younger Cardinals taking part in the victory against the Indians, who struggled from the getgo.

The score was 27-8 at half time and 42-14 by the end of the third when Samantha Moss, Katie Hofer, Kayla Huxoll and Hailey Goenen were all in the starting lineup, building on the momentum of their more experienced teammates.

"Everybody got a lot of playing time," head coach Jerry Baker said. "Everybody on the bench got the score. It was a good game for us."

Everybody, that is, except Kristen Potter who recently suffered a knee injury and is waiting to see if she'll start in the all-important game against Asotin.

The points were spread evenly among the 11 players Tuesday. Krystal Harris led with 9, followed by Kayla Huxoll with 7 and Ronnie Hulce, Genesis Pearson, Katie Hofer and Dionna Baker each with 6.

But if the Lady Cardinals' won with nearly triple the points of their opponents, their male counterparts logged a record number of points for the season. They beat the Indians 80-41 with several newer starters coming into their own, including Tyler Baxter, Austin Beasley, Justin Zuger and Dalton Estes.

"It was a good all-around team effort," head coach T.J. Scott said. "We shot really well at Dayton (on Saturday) and tonight."

The teams seemed to draw up evenly until the second quarter when several fast plays seemed to take the wind out of the Indians' sails and WP's growing margin showed no end in sight.

At one point, Kris Cady grabbed a pass nearly the entire length of the court, saved it from going out of bounds with a signature athletic catch and passed it back to Hamilton who dunked it in the basket.

The third quarter ended with double the point score at 60-31. During the last period, the Cardinals reached the magical 80 when a lastsecond field goal before the buzzer.

Now, the teams face Asotin at that school's home court, where the local teams are notoriously hard to beat, Scott and Baker said.

" If you win that one, you're in pretty good shape for the league title," said Scott, who has not yet won that distinction since he began coaching the basketball team three years ago. "I want it, the kids want it. The Asotin game is going to be huge."