WALWORTH - Ideally, the first half of the Cardinals' Rock Valley schedule would have opened the way the second half kicked off Thursday night.

But Thursday's eighth win in nine games, a nail-biting 62-58 victory over Big Foot, made the past feeling mighty distant.

Kristen Ruchti and Paige Hoeper combined for 42 of the Lady Cardinals' 62 points - the junior post Ruchti dropped in 22 points and the savvy senior hit a pair of 3-pointers en route to a 20-point performance.

Neither team could build a lead to greater than six points in the see-saw battle that was tied at 35-apiece at the break.

The victory came nearly two months after a disappointing 51-47 loss to Big Foot at home that Brodhead (7-3, 7-1 Rock Valley) refused to let derail its season.

"We kind of let that one slip away, but we didn't come into this one talking about revenge," Brodhead coach Chris Medenwaldt said. "We just did what we do and executed."

Junior point guard Courtney Mielke was cold as ice, hitting three of four free throws in the final minute and Hoeper added a pair of freebies to keep the Chieftains at bay.

Big Foot was led by sophomore post Jordyn Courier's 19 points.

The Cardinals hope to further build up steam with a neighborhood rivalry matchup against Monroe on Saturday, a makeup from Monday's snow-out.

The club returns to league play when Clinton visits Tuesday and will face fellow 7-1 club Parkview on Feb. 7. But, much the way they didn't after their conference-opening loss, they're not looking too far ahead.

"After starting out 0-1, we found a way to be where we are today and now we've got six games to determine where we'll end up," Medenwaldt said.