The Cardinals earn a win at Wausa
WAUSA — Win, home sweet win.
Well not really in some respects, but a road win at rival Wausa was definitely what the doctor ordered for the Randolph Cardinals’ boys basketball team.
Randolph pulled away for a 57-42 win over the Vikings as Tristan Mosel (17 points), Collyn Beal (15 points, 13 rebounds) and Justin Haselhorst (15 points, seven rebounds) led the Cardinals (2-10) to the big win that was cemented with a 21-11 fourth quarter run.
“After getting the game moved from Friday to Saturday, I was concerned,” Randolph head coach Jim Hixson said. “You never know what you are going to get when a game falls on a day when you do not have school, but the kids did a good job of staying focused and played one of our better games of the season.”
Hixson cited his team’s ability to win the rebounding battle (33-29), limit turnovers against the press and hit free throws when they counted. Randolph outshot Wausa 41- 21 from the charity stripe and scored 11 more points there (24-13) to key the victory.
“I was concerned with our ability to close out this game when our two normal big men in the middle both fouled out,” Hixson said. “But Collyn did a great job filling in, in the middle, and made his free throws down the stretch to help us close it out. It was very gratifying to see the look on the kids’ faces after the game.
“I coach them hard. It is not always fun in practice to be pushed and continually corrected. I am really happy that their hard work showed up on the court.”
Randolph played at home against Winside Tuesday and will head to Neligh-Oakdale on Friday.
“The key to the Neligh game will be to limit our turnover and continue to rebound,” Hixson said.
Mosel was feeling pretty good following the win over their rival from Wausa.
“It was huge, and it really helped get us going,” Mosel said. “We have Winside this week and we want to get that going and get ready for Neligh.
“We all worked hard in practice and on the court, everyone looked like they were having fun and that really helps so they keep their spirits up.”
Mosel added that the Cardinals were able to keep the game at their pace and the morale was there as the team found ways to push opponents to stay up.
“That doesn’t always happen,” Mosel said. “We also improved offensively and defensively, but it’s more about putting in the effort needed to get to that point.
“A lot of fans would talk about us not being good because of the players we don’t have, and we all looked at each other and said, ‘let’s not make it that way.’”
Mosel added that the determination was another sign the Cardinals were tired of coming out on the short end of the stick.
“Now we just have to try to keep our number of fouls down,” he said. “A lot of them happen in the paint and our big men not staying straight up and swinging at the ball sometimes.”
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