Cardinals slow cooks Hillsboro-Deering for a win

The Cardinals Luke Come #14 gets the better of Hillsboro-Deering’s Ethan Blevin’s on this rebound. Come had a double/double tonight scoring 11 points while grabbing 13 rebounds during the Stevens 43-27 win. The Cardinals improve to 7-6 and host FM on Monday. – Chris Shaban

CLAREMONT –  After playing their last six games on the road, the Cardinals returned home and grabbed another win against Hillsboro-Deering that was a slow motion game. The visitors have struggled with wins this year and they decided to make the pace so slow that there was no tempo at all. The Cardinals adjusted to a zone defense and Stevens head coach Matt Baird-Torney said after the game that they, “did what they had to do for a win tonight.”

With neither team lighting up the scoreboard in the first quarter, Stevens, because they were missing shots and Hillsboro-Deering just didn’t look to shoot the ball. It was the Cardinals Teagan Daignault’s three pointer that gave Stevens the lead once and for all 6-5 with less than 2 minutes to play. Luke Come and Drew Grenier closed out the scoring in the first quarter with back to back hoops as Stevens took a 10-5 lead.

Both teams settled into the zone defense for the majority of the game which allowed the Cardinals’ Come and Tanner Durkee to grab rebounds for second chance opportunities. “We knew that Hillsboro-Deering was held to a season low 28 points and our goal tonight was to limit them to less than that,” said Baird-Torney after the game, “our team identity is defense and tonight I thought we did a good job of that,” added the Stevens coach.

The Cardinal lead began to grow but the highlights of the 2nd quarter were the steals of Ethan Johnson and Grennier. Johnson picked the pocket of Kiyle Brown after a Come basket and slipped in for a left handed layup. Grenier’s defensive gem came just before the half ended as Hillsboro-Deering was looking for the last shot. This time it was Hillsboro-Deering’s Zach Rowell turn to fall prey to the quick Stevens defense as Grennier’s theft and last second shot off the rim set the tone as the Cardinals led 18-8 at the break.

With the Cardinals holding a comfortable 23-13 lead, the Hilltoppers biggest offenseive explosion of the night cut the lead to 23-18 but Grenier and Durkee answered back to keep the Cardinals ahead 27-21 as Hillsboro-Deering outscored the Cardinals 13-9 in the third quarter.

Any glimmer of a Hillsboro-Deering win was eliminated by back to back Damon Roy three point bombs at the start of the final quarter and the Cardinals cruised the rest of the way holding their opponents to only six final quarter points. Derrick Stanhope’s parade to the free throw line closed out the scoring as Stevens walked off with a 43-27 win to improve to 7-6 on the season.

“Although we didn’t play our best tonight, we did what we had to for the win and worked on a few things during the game,” said Roy. “Now we need to get ready for Fall Mountain on Monday,” he added after the game. Stevens held Hillsboro-Deering to only three two point field goals the entire game.

Grenier and Come paced the Cardinals with 11 points each. Come and Durkee hauled in 13 and 12 rebounds respectively.

Stevens will host FM(8-5) in a varsity double header on Monday starting with the girls game at 5:30.

In JV action, Stevens alumni(08) Ryan Hoyt’s team bested the Cardinals 43-39. Owen Taylor led the Cardinals with 9 points and had help from Tyler Bonneau and Alex taylor who chipped in with 6 points each.