Cardinals fall in heated fight
BY ALYSSA MEIER
Editor
In a heartbreaking finale to their season, the Cardinals lost the Region 5 championship game Thursday in a down-to-the-second fight with the Trojans.
Head Coach Derrick Seiler said the team showed up for the championship game March 9 with high hopes, riding on the confidence of two major wins just days before.
“We thought if we could play the way we played the two previous games we could win,” Seiler said. He said that since Washburn had already faced off against Turtle Lake-Mercer/McClusky twice this season, both teams knew their opponent well going into the championship game. Seiler said the team wanted to focus on keeping the ball out of the hands of the Trojan’s Trapper Jacobs, who had caused them trouble in the district tournament.
“We wanted to deny Trapper as much as we could because we know he's an explosive player when he gets the ball,” Seiler said.
In the first few minutes of the game, the teams played neck and neck, with each point scored by the Trojans being followed by a basket from the Cardinals. But quickly, TL-M-M started pulling away.
“We could of done some things better defensively the first half but they were just on fire,” Seiler said. “It didn't seem to matter who was taking the shot, they were going to knock it down.”
