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Lady Elkers defeat Smethport |
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Tuesday, 22 December 2009 |
By Greg Reedy
Sports Editor
The Ridgway Lady Elkers used a fast start to defeat Smethport, 44-29, in girls basketball action last night at the Ridgway Area High School gymnasium.
The Lady Elkers (2-3) jumped out to an 18-4 lead at the end of the first quarter behind solid outside shooting and offensive execution.
"That was our game plan," Ridgway coach Glenn Schauer said. "We knew if we put some pressure on, we would have the opportunity to get up, get a lead and that's what we did."
Schauer said he was pleased with his team's shooting throughout the first half.
"It was really good, it was excellent," Schauer said. "They were hitting the open shots and they moved the ball around well, they ran the plays well, a really good first half of the game."
Ridgway led as much as 27-4 in the second quarter before Smethport did come back with a 6-2 run to cut the deficit to under 20 points at 29-10. Ridgway entered halftime leading 31-12.
Neither team could figure out the other's defense in the third quarter in a low-scoring 8 minutes. Ridgway outscored Smethport 4-3 for the entire quarter.
"There was a little bit of a letdown in the third quarter especially," Schauer said. "All in all, we intentionally slowed it down, there was no need to run up the score. We got people in that always get a lot of minutes and they performed well."
Smethport had its most productive quarter in the fourth, outscoring Ridgway 14-9. The Hubbers could not get the margin under 10 points after the first quarter as Ridgway cruised to the victory, the Lady Elkers' second consecutive win.
Nicole Breier and Andrea Redmond led Ridgway with 10 points each. Olivia Horning had nine and Bekka Leitzel scored eight points. Kathy Shirey had five and Shelby Davison had two points.
Schauer said the Lady Elkers controlled the pacing of the game better.
"They did what we wanted them to," Schauer said. "When we wanted to slow it down, they slowed it down, when we wanted them to go hard, they went hard."
Ridgway hosts Port Allegany tonight. Junior varsity action starts at 6 p.m. with the varsity game to follow. Wednesday Ridgway travels to Austin.
"Tomorrow's a big one against Port Allegany and then we have Austin so those are big games for us," Schauer said. "We get three in a row, that's a tough schedule."
Schauer said these next two games would be nice to win heading to the Elk County Holiday Tournament next week.
"This is the first time we've played Port since I can remember and Austin is always a good, tough team," Schauer said. "It would be good to finish well heading into the holiday tournament with a bunch of wins and get above .500."
There was no junior varsity game last night.
Smethport 4 8 3 14 - 29
Ridgway 18 13 4 9 - 44
Smethport - 29
Danielle Nielson 3 0-0 7, Stratton 1 4-7 6, Shannon Hughes 2 0-0 5, Danielle Carlson 2 0-0 4, Megan Zylinski 1 2-4 4, Herzog 1 0-0 3, Totals 10 7-13 29.
Ridgway - 44
Nicole Breier 5 0-1 10, Andrea Redmond 3 4-4 10, Olivia Horning 3 3-4 9, Bekka Leitzel 3 1-2 8, Kathy Shirey 2 0-0 5, Shelby Davison 1 0-0 2, Totals 17 8-11 44. |
