Staff photo / Brian Yauger Canfield’s Kate Sahli drives against South Range’s Devin Sauerwein Wednesday night at South Range during Canfield’s 45-17 win.

BEAVER TOWNSHIP — In the first half of Wednesday’s game between Canfield and South Range, baskets were hard to come by. If you were driving to the paint, there’d be bodies swarmed all over you.

Things started to open up in the second half for the Cardinals as Canfield’s offense picked up, beating the Raiders on the road, 45-17.

Heading into the locker room after the first half, Cardinals coach Matt Reel issued a challenge to his girls. As tough and as physical as that first half was, Reel wanted to see a little more following the break.

“We didn’t think we had great mental and physical toughness,” he said. “I thought they’re a little bit tougher than us and we challenged some young ladies in the locker room just to play like they’re capable of and really have the confidence that they sometimes struggle with.

“We knew that South Range, with Lexi going close to 1,000 and being a backyard rival, we knew we were going to get their best effort. I thought we missed some shots we normally make but I thought defensively we did a tremendous job all night.”

The Cardinals took that challenge, as they scored 29 second half points and were fighting to finish at the rim.

Alyssa Dill led the team with 15 points on the night. Abby Muckleroy and Gianna DeLucia each added eight in the defensive contest.

Reel is still offering up challenges for his team. His goal is to see the Cardinals shoot 60 percent from the field. Once they fit all the pieces together, he’s optimistic as to what the team can do.

“We’ve had games where we shoot 25 percent,” Reel said. “If we can (shoot 60 percent) and we take better care of the ball – I’m really proud of our effort defensively – I told them, ‘When we finally put everything together, it’s going to be a really fun night.'”

With about three minutes remaining in the game, South Range senior Lexi Giles scored her 1,000th point from the free throw line. She was held to three points, but that was all she needed to hit the milestone.

“It was very special,” Giles said. “I didn’t think I was going to get it because I wasn’t playing my best, but I had a great team to back me up. They helped me out a lot today.”

Mallory Vidman and Emma Cunningham led on the scoresheet for South Range. Each scored six.

With the pressure of 1,000 points no longer lingering over Giles, she knows she can get back to helping her team win.

Despite the loss, Raiders coach Jeff Fishel knows his team is going to be fine in the long run.

“This team is so resilient,” Fishel said. “They’ve been through things as a team the past couple years that no no teams have been through. If there was a group of kids that I wanted and I trusted to bounce back it’s this group of girls. What they’ve been through has been tougher than anything anybody around here has dealt with, so we’re going to bounce back tomorrow and we’re going to be fine.”

Both teams are now 9-5 on the year.

The Raiders have a quick turnaround as they host Northeast-8 rival Lakeview tonight at 7 p.m. while Canfield hosts Austintown Fitch on Saturday.