By DONN ADAMSON\Daily Journal Sports Editor

Published: Sunday, November 19, 2006
Updated: Saturday, November 18, 2006 11:14 PM CST

PARK HILLS - The Mineral Area Cardinals are a force to be reckoned with on their own court. With an 80-56 win over the Lincoln Trail Statesmen on Saturday the 7-0 Cardinals made their home winning streak 28 wins.

The Cardinals utilized a stifling defense to cause 21 turnovers by the Statesmen, and at the same time only turned it over nine times themselves. The usual sharpshooting from the arc was somewhat absent as the Cardinals made only three of 17 shots from three-point land in the first half.

The turnovers gave MAC more opportunities to score taking 19 more shots than the visitors (62-43), and having a higher percentage of shots made 48 percent to 46.5 by the Statesmen.

Eric Stuckey ruled the paint with 20 points for the Cardinals and pulling down eight rebounds. Stuckey gave up quite a bit of weight to Lincoln Trail's big man inside. Thomas Fraise cleaned off the defensive boards, leaving MAC with only one shot at the basket nearly every time down the court.

Mineral Area gained an early lead and never relinquished it, staying just enough ahead to take a 35-27 half-time lead into the locker room. In the second half they turned their defense up another notch, causing several time violations by the Statesmen, either by not passing the ball in five seconds with a Cardinal defender covering the ballhandler, or 10 seconds in not crossing the half-court line with the ball.

The Cardinals got full use of the foul line as they made 13-15 from the line, before missing 3-4 in the final minute of play.

MAC started to pull away early in the half, and moved to a 20-point lead with 10 minutes left. The Statesmen would close to 15, but another late surge by Mineral Area would have both coaches clearing their benches to put the subs in to finish the game.

The Cardinals will have their hands full on Tuesday when they travel to 6-1 SE Illinois to play their next game, before returning for their Thanksgiving Tournament on Friday and Saturday.