Lady Cardinals bounce back in Walnut Grove

The Miller Lady Cardinals participated in the Walnut Grove Girls Holiday Classic. For the second year in a row, the Miller team was awarded the top seed in the tournament. To open, the Lady Cardinals saw Fair Play Lady Jackets, who they downed 59-6 in a masterful defensive performance.
The win secured Miller a place in the quarterfinal round Thursday against host school Walnut Grove. Walnut Grove managed to play the Lady Cardinals tougher than anyone this year for a team that was considered a heavy underdog. Unlike in their previous games against Blue Eye and Republic, Miller was able to control the fourth quarter and they clinched a spot in the semifinal with the 32-19 win over the Lady Tigers.
“They (Walnut Grove) play hard and they are very well coached. The way they play defense forces teams to take a ton of outside shots and we were lucky to hit enough. Walnut Grove is playing great ball right now and we are lucky to come out with the win,” Miller coach Sean Price said.
Miller's Payten Richardson was happy to get the victory.
“A win is a win. That is one thing you can never take for granted. We didn’t play like we wanted to but at the end of the day, we played together, we picked each other up, and we got the dub,” Richardson said.

Semifinals
The Lady Cardinals move to 8-2 on the year and continued their journey in the semifinals of the Walnut Grove tournament Tuesday against a very good Ash Grove team, in a sectionals rematch from a year ago. Then they will play Thursday in either the championship game at 7:30 p.m. or in the third-place game at 6 p.m.

Miller boys
The Miller Cardinals also participated in this same tournament, but fell in their opening round game against Sparta. They were in action again Monday against a Pierce City team that came off a loss to Verona. Their next game will be Wednesday at either noon if they defeated the Eagles or 9 a.m., if they lost.