ATLANTA–The Charlottesville Cardinals wheelchair basketball team notched a win against the Lakeshore (Birmingham, AL) Storm squad, 65-63. in their second meeting at the Shepherd Shootout in Atlanta, Georgia this past weekend.
After Charlottesville defeated Lakeshore 64-57 on Saturday afternoon, the two teams squared off again on Sunday morning, and the Lakeshore players definitely came to the gym with revenge on their minds.
As the Cardinals sputtered in the opening minutes of the contest the Storm stormed to a ten point lead midway through the first half behind the hot shooting of their ace, Ryan Hinze. Charlottesville called a time out after ten minutes of play to regroup and then mounted a rally that closed the gap to one point, 32-31, at the half.
The teams exchanged the lead several times in the opening minutes of the second half before Charlottesville managed to claim a five point advantage with seven minutes to play. Lakeshore made multiple sallies that cut the advantage to one point but could never regain the lead, and with just under two minutes to play the Storm began fouling the Cardinals and forcing them to shoot from the free throw line.
Key foul shots by Brandon Rush and Arthur Tracy preserved the Charlottesville edge and Lakeshore’s final shot at the buzzer fell short, giving the Cardinals a hard won 65-63 victory.
With the win the Cardinals finished the tournament with a 2-2 record and a third place finish.
Arthur Tracy led Cardinals’ scorers with 28 points, followed by Chris Robinson and Tom Vandever with 10 each, Brandon Rush with 7, Jeremy Smith with 6, and Jacob Tyree with 4. Lakeshore’s Ryan Hinze led all scorers with 30 points and Lakeshore’s Jeremy Campbell added 15.
The Cardinals are 4-2 on the season and travel to the University of Pennsylvania-Edinboro next weekend (11/8-9) to compete in the “Boro Shootout”.