Special to the News
On Jan. 9, the Elizabeth girls basketball team was on the road
again, this time against the D'Evelyn Jaguars.
Elizabeth showed moments of excellence, but overall its numerous
turnovers combined with hot three-point shooting opponent proved to
be too much to handle. In the end D'Evelyn prevailed by a score of
91-50.
After a slow start, getting down 9-0, the Cards went on their
own 10-point run to take their only lead of the game 10-9. By the
end of the first quarter D'Evelyn was up 22-12. After another slow
start in the second quarter Elizabeth found themselves down 28-14.
Coach Eric Hawkins called a timeout and the Cards had another one
of their moments going on a 7-0 run to close the gap to 28-21. This
would be the closest they would get the rest of the game. By
halftime the Jags were up 38-25. At halftime, Hawkins was unable to
come up with a way to reduce the turnovers and the Cards found
themselves down 65-38 at the end of the 3rd quarter.
With three minutes left in the game D'Evelyn had extended its
lead to 80-48. Hawkins saw the writing on the wall at this point
and opted to get some of the other players on the bench some game
time.
Freshman Morgan Nelson lead all scorers with 17. Seniors Kelli
Christiansen and Hillary Hawkins contributed 13 and 11
respectively. Both had great stats from the free throw line. Kelli
was five for six and Hillary was three for three.
On Jan. 16, the Cardinals visited the Arvada Bulldogs to
continue their Jeffco 4A conference play. Getting off to a good
start has been a problem for many of the games this year, but
Elizabeth jumped out to a 5-0 lead to begin the game. They held
that five-point lead for the first quarter. The second quarter was
back and forth with Elizabeth up 26-19 at half time. The Cards came
out strong again at the start of the third and had expanded their
lead to nine points half way through the third at 38-29.
Senior Hillary Hawkins picked up her fourth foul and had to come
out.
Arvada took advantage of this and closed the gap to three points
by the end of the third quarter for a score of 40-37. The fourth
quarter turned out to be a nail-biting back and forth battle with
Elizabeth holding on to their three-point edge all the way up to
the 38 second mark. With the score 50-47 and Elizabeth inbounding
the ball, the Cards were able to get the ball to their clutch free
throw shooter. Hillary Hawkins nailed both free throws with 10
seconds left on the clock to give Elizabeth a much-needed 53-47
conference victory. There were three Cards in double figures.
Senior Hillary Hawkins led all with 17 points, Senior Kelli
Christiansen added 12 and Freshman Morgan Nelson came up with 10
points. Sophomore Kelsi Chuven used some good ball handling skills
to penetrate Arvada's defense and added 8 points.
On Jan. 17 Elizabeth hosted a non-conference game against the
Strasburg Indians. It was a defensive battle for the first four
minutes of the game with only 2 points being scored by Strasburg
and none by Elizabeth. The next four minutes weren't much better
for the Cards as they could only manage five points for the entire
quarter. Good defense held Strasburg to 12 points. The second
quarter was much of the same offensively for Elizabeth as they
could only manage four more points.
Strasburg remained consistent with their scoring and added 13
points to make it 9-25 at half time. The girls came out strong the
first four minutes of the third quarter to cut the lead to 19-28.
The rest of the third quarter was a different story as they did not
score any more and Strasburg built its lead back up to 35-19. The
beginning of the fourth quarter, Elizabeth came roaring back again
to cut the lead to 33-40. With 6:30 remaining, the Cards lost their
center Morgan Nelson to fouls.
Strasburg took advantage of the smaller line up and jumped back
ahead by 15 points. Elizabeth closed the gap at the end to make it
a final score of 48-58. The telling stat for this game was
Elizabeth's poor shooting percentage. They were 12 for 46, 26
percent for two-point attempts and three for 13, 23 percent, from
three-point range. Senior Kelli Christiansen lead the scoring with
18 points. The only other Cardinal in double figures was Hillary
Hawkins, who added 13 points. Sophomore Savanah Hutchins saw some
playing time at the end and managed to sink one of those three
three-point goals.
Cardinal results:
January 16, 2009
Elizabeth 11 15 14 13 – 53
Arvada 6 13 18 10 – 47
E – Nelson 5 0-0 10, Morgan 1 0-1 2, J Poole 1 0-0 2,
Christiansen 5 2-3 12, Chuven 4 0-0 8, Mason 1 0-0 2, L Poole 0 0-2
0, Hawkins 5 6-9 17, Totals 22 8-15 53.
Three-point goals –E, Hawkins. Rebounds – E, Hawkins 13, Nelson
10. Assists – E, Hawkins 5, Nelson 2, Chuven 2, Mason 2. Steals –
E, Hawkins 6, Nelson 3, Mason 3. Blocks – E, Nelson 5.
January 17, 2009
Elizabeth 5 4 10 29 – 48
Strasburg 12 13 10 23 – 58
E – Nelson 1 0-2 2, Morgan 1 0-0 2, Christiansen 5 8-9 18, Mason
1 2-2 4, Hutchins 1 0-0 3, Poole L 3 0-1 6, Hawkins 3 5-8 13,
Totals 15 15-22 48.
Three-point goals –E, Hutchins, Hawkins 2. Fouled out – Nelson,
L Poole. Rebounds – E, Nelson 13, Hawkins 10. Assists – E, Hawkins
6, Nelson 3. Steals – E, Mason 2, Hawkins 2. Blocks – E, Hawkins 2,
Nelson.
