The Cardington-Lincoln girls basketball team was enjoying a dream season at 13-0, and 8-0 in KMAC play, and were ranked No. 2 in Division III by AP and No. 3 by MaxPreps.
The Lady Pirates were on a 51-game regular season winning streak with 65-straight KMAC victories.
Cardington-Lincoln entered the game after a rough week. After having five players out during the week with COVID, the team found out at 2 p.m. on game day that team-leader Dana Bertke was unavailable due to illness. An initial COVID test showed negative at the time, but according to C-L coach Jamie Edwards, “She was definitely in no shape to play. And midway through the first half, Mikayla Linkous, another starter, was in the locker room throwing up."
But the game must go on. On Jan. 17, C-L played host to Division II school River Valley, and playing without senior Bertke, the spark plug and team-leader that Cardington’s head coach Edwards calls "the gear that turns the wheels,” and with remaining floor leaders in foul trouble, the unthinkable happened. Cardington-Lincoln LOST to the RV Vikings, 47-32.
The Lady Pirates, now 13-1, but still 8-0 in KMAC, have outscored their opponents 831 to 515 this season. Their loss came to a Division II team that is no slouch. The River Valley Lady Vikings are 10-4 and 4-4 in the Mid-Ohio Conference and have a 108-point scoring advantage (746-638) over their opponents this season.
C-L has started slowly in many games this season, then has stepped it up as the game progressed. This time, the Lady Pirates started well, got cold in the second quarter and grew even colder in the third, as the Lady Vikings grew more confident with each possession.
C-L had the lead after one, by a 14-10 score, and it looked like another walk in the park for the Pirates. In the first, Cardington-Lincoln’s 14 points were divvied up among five players, with Beth Hardwick hitting a three and a deuce and Kambry Edwards sinking a three.
In an ice-cold second, C-L turned the ball over six times to three for RV and netted only five points, as River Valley answered with 14 and took a 24-19 lead at the half.
With Linkous ill and doing her best to try to play some limited minutes in the second half, C-L was even more frigid in third and was held without a field goal. Only Karsyn Edwards reached the score sheet, with two successful free throws. With five more turnovers by Cardington to two by the Vikings, River Valley started feeling it, and countered with 12 points to take a 36-21 lead into the fourth.
Hardwick and Karsyn Edwards were both saddled with four fouls, and it affected their play and playing time in the second half and down the stretch.
River Valley was methodically protecting the ball, turning it over only once in the first quarter and only nine times for the game, to 19 for the Lady Pirates. RV only lost possession three times in the fourth, and C-L turned it over five times in the period.
Linkous hit a three and a deuce in the fourth, but 11 fourth-quarter points weren’t nearly enough to make a game out of it as RV also scored 11.
C-L had no players in double figures and was led by Linkous with eight points, Karsyn Edwards with seven and Emalee Artz with six.
“Losing an All-Ohioan like Bertke, with no time to prepare for adjustments, set us back a bit as we attempted to move players around to fill the gaps," Edwards said. "Freshmen Abigail Hardwick and Madison Caulkins stepped up and played big minutes for the missing seniors. Dana has been a varsity starter since her freshman year, so we have never had to adjust to her not being in the lineup. She is our ‘do-everything’ type of player who also serves as our best post defender.
“But take nothing away from River Valley. They game-planned well and shot it well from the outside. RV starters Hannah Logan (18 points) and Brooklyn Mosher (14 points) both play AAU for me in the spring/summer. I know better than anyone how good those two players are. And they played well Monday night. If we are going to lose, I’m glad it was to them. I am proud of the way they played.”
Due to illness, Cardington-Lincoln is off until Saturday, when the Lady Pirates travel to Fredericktown to play the Freddies.
“Now we will refocus our practices and work on the areas where we struggled due to the missing seniors," Edwards said. "We hope by Saturday that we are back to full strength. The positive is that our freshmen are gaining valuable minutes and increasing our production from the bench.”
After the loss, MaxPreps dropped C-L to 14th in Div. III and ranked River Valley at No. 23 in Div. II. The AP poll came out before the contest and still has C-L at No. 2.
