Lady Cardinals hold on at home

A 30-14 halftime lead gave the Lady Cardinals enough room that they did a little defensive experimentation in the second half at home on Friday.

The experiment — switching from their standard man-to-man defense into a zone — showed some glitches, but not enough to prevent Corning High from defeating visiting Yreka 55-43.

The Lady Cardinals pressed and trapped the Miners into double-figure turnovers in the first quarter, which saw Corning open up an 8-1 lead. The Cardinals never trailed after Shyanne Petty sank the first three of her team-high 15 points from behind the arc to open the scoring.

Corning continued applying the defensive pressure, and it helped create more opportunities on the offensive end in the second quarter, as Petty scored eight points, Gates Fears added six and Marisa Vinson drained a trey among her five points.

"We had a good spurt in the second quarter and the start of the third," said Corning coach Curt Eller. The Cardinals led by as much as 20 points in the early stages of the second half.

With the move to a 2-3 zone, Yreka was able stretch the Corning defense and get some penetration. The Lady Cardinals only outscored Yreka 26-24 in the second half.

"We've got to play all-around better defense," Eller commented. "We pulled off the standard press, and when I went zone it may have taken us out of sync."

Of the Lady Cardinals' four field goals in the third quarter, three were treys as Rachel Silva buried a pair and freshman Whitney Armstrong found the range as well.

Scoring in the third quarter was balanced for Corning, as Jordan Raker opened the scoring with a 3-pointer, and Vinson followed with a three-point play. Petty, Fears and Keara Terras added buckets as the Lady Cardinals improved to 13-7, and 4-1 in the Northern Athletic League.

"Normally, you'll take a 12-point win in league," Eller added, "but our focus and execution needs to get better down the stretch."

Vinson and Silva both scored 11 points for the Cardinals, and Fears finished with eight.

Katlyne Brummett led all scorers with 17 points for the Miners, while Destiny Sinnett pitched in with seven.

Corning played on the road at Lassen on Tuesday, and hosts Central Valley on Friday.

CONTACT Craig Purcell at 824-1036 or cpurcell@tcnpress.com