The Boy’s basketball team made it to the championship of the Cardinal Classic. The Cards took on Nativity. The Cards starting lineup was Jordan Pena, Dawson Ibarra, Andrew Griffiths, Ryan Culbert, and Zach Hlavaty. The Cards started the game by losing the tip off to Nativity. The first quarter was all the Cards. Andrew Griffiths, senior starter, had the first points of the game with 6:55 left. Ryan Culbert, senior starter, hits a three pointer to have the score 5-0 with 5:11 left. As Nativity was trying to get points on the board Jordan Pena hits another three pointer for the Cards to be up by 8. With 2:17 left Dawson Ibarra hits yet another three pointer for the Cards. The Cards defense was on top of Nativity’s offense every time they were on Cardinal side of the court. Culbert finishes off the quarter with only 3 seconds left to have the cards up by 13.

Nativity comes right out for the second quarter with making a layup for the score to be 13-2. With 7:11 left, Pena was fouled and had two foul shots. Pena made both for the score to be 15-2. Culbert has the ball with 6:34 left and shoots for a three pointer. Right after Nativity was given two foul shots and made both for them to get 2 more points on the scoreboard, 18-4. Nativity comes alive the rest of the second quarter making 8 more points, all 2 pointers, to have to score 18-12. The third quarter starts with the Cards ready to go after half time. The Cards are only up by 6 but that doesn’t bother Griffiths as he makes two points with 7:10 left. With 6:15 left Nativity comes back with two points. Nativity was starting to get past the Cards defense just a little but the Cards held strong as Pena makes the score 22-14. With only 5:00 left, Griffiths hits a three pointer. Nativity was in the Cards end when fouled and given two foul shots. Nativity made one out of the two foul shots to have the score 25-15. Culbert makes the score 27-15 with 3:55 left. Shortly after Nativity drains a three pointer. To end the quarter Griffiths makes the score 29-18.

The Cards go into the fourth quarter being 11 points ahead of Nativity. With the quarter just starting, Pena hits a three pointer for the score to be 32-18. Nativity’s offense comes down the court to make a three pointer with 6:47 left. The Cards left Nativity have another two points for the score to be 32-23. Ibarra makes two pointers but for Pena to come right back and hit a three pointer, 37-23. Griffiths was then fouled but only made one of the two shots given. But he makes up for the missed shot by making a layup for the score to be 40-23. Nativity had foul shots to get their score up 40-28. With only 50 seconds left, Nativity hits a three pointer but Zach Hlavaty comes back with 47 seconds left to have the score 44-33. Culbert made both of his foul shots for the score to be 46-33. 36 seconds left of the quarter, Nativity hits another three pointer for the score to be 40-36. Culbert, with 22 seconds left, hits a layup for two more points. Nativity is then given two foul shots with 17 seconds left of the game and both shots were missed. The final score was 48-36. Senior Ryan Culbert gives us his thoughts about the game, “We all played well with each other, we moved the ball quickly to get to easy shots. We also played incredible defense throughout the game, glad we got first place in our Cardinal Classic. We played our hearts out and we did it.” As all four of the seniors started the game tonight, Jordan Pena says about winning the championship senior year, “Feels good we got the job done to win our christmas tournament, especially since we made a small goal to win it this season. We look forward to the rest of the season, and look to make a run now.”