Beachwood Girls' Basketball Rolls Over Cardinal

The Beachwood girls’ basketball team ran Middlefield Cardinal off the court in the first half of their opening-round game in the Division III District Tournament.

The second half? Well, not so much.

Lady Bison coach Melvin Burke wasn’t stressed about his team posting a mere 19 points in the second half after posting 45 in the first. After all, it added up to a 64-27 victory Wednesday night, good enough to beat the Huskies and good enough to face Wickliffe in the quarterfinals Saturday.

Coach Burke didn’t want to give away too much to the Wickliffe scouts seated nearby or embarrass the school’s Chagrin Valley Conference cross-division rivals who posted one victory on the season. It was a tough balance, but Burke thought his team juggled it well at Lakeside High School.

“We were fine. We weren’t too aggressive tonight. We didn’t want to show too much. We just played 2-3 zone. We weren’t trying to trap. We’ll save that for a good day,” Burke said.

“(Cardinal) is in our league. We’re not going to embarrass anybody in our own league. Not saying we’re going to have a pity party for anybody, but sportsmanship does count, right?”

For Beachwood, it was their 18th win against four losses, but sadly for the Huskies, it was their 19th defeat to close the year. It was a repeat of the season finale for both teams. The Lady Bison defeated the Huskies, 75-37, at Cardinal last Wednesday.

For Burke and crew, their eyes are on the prize of a district title, and at the moment, Wickliffe stands in their way. Burke sees a similar matchup with the Blue Devils as he does with the Huskies.

The Lady Bison swept the Blue Devils, also a member of the CVC. And, not unlike Cardinal, they have a paucity of wins on the season with a 2-18 record.

“We’ll add a few plays defensively and offensively. It’ll probably be the same format (as Wednesday night), and we’ll make sure we play with intensity,” Burke said.

Although the second half wasn’t the best performance for the Lady Bison, throughout the game, their ability to steal the ball was in full evidence. The Lady Bison racked up 25 takeaways.

Aneisha Hardin led the Lady Bison with 15 points, while Mercedes Hudson had 11 points and Monique Kaiser tallied 10.

Nonetheless, the Lady Bison got off to a slow start.

Shockingly, the underdog Cardinal got off the mark quickly with a Kelsey Adams’ free throw and Elizabeth Ohtola’s short jumper for a 3-0 lead, helped in large part by generally sloppy play from Beachwood. The surprise didn’t last long, however.

The Lady Bison quickly overcame the slow start, scoring 24 unanswered points to close the first quarter as Hudson’s putback at the buzzer capped the scoring.

The Lady Bison’s run continued until Christy Griffin hit a pair of free throws at 4:16 of the second quarter to end a Beachwood streak of 35 consecutive points.  The Huskies didn’t score their second field goal of the game until Adams’ 3-pointer at 1:03 closed the half’s scoring at 45-11.

In the third quarter, the Lady Bison managed a mere 11 points. The fourth featured eight.

Saturday’s game time is 6 p.m. at Lakeside High School.

Cardinal           3    8  8  8 27

Beachwood   24  21 11  8 64

Cardinal: Kelsey Adams 11, Christy Griffin 6, Bev Byers 3, Bizzie Timas 3, Elizabeth Ohtola 2, Annie McCaslin 2.

Beachwood: Aneisha Hardin 15, Mercedes Hudson 11, Monique Kaiser 10, Mikah Aldridge 9, Maya Eddie 7, Krystal Pearson 7, Kyndal Wilson 3, Logan Jones 2.