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Thursday, 24 December 2009 |
By Greg Reedy
Sports Editor
After a mostly even first six minutes, Ridgway pulled away and had little trouble in a 66-33 win against Austin Wednesday night at Ridgway Area High School.
Ridgway (3-3) led 11-8 with 2:29 left in the first quarter until going on an 8-2 run to take a 19-10 lead after the end of one period.
"Overall, we did what we had to do to build a lead but it took us longer than it should have," Ridgway coach Anthony Allegretto said. We gave some easy baskets early. We're having some difficulties on the press. We have some guys that don't understand it and that's my fault. They got to get to a point where they understand what we want. We're not guarding the right areas at the right times and giving the other team 3-on-2 fast breaks, consistently turning them into easy baskets. Not just tonight, the last four games."
Allegretto said a busy slate of game has left little time for practice.
"We haven't had a whole lot of practice time, we had four games in a five-day stretch so until I can get some practice time to fix it, it's tough," Allegretto said.
The Elkers started the first three minutes of the second quarter on a 13-2 run to take a 32-12 lead and take control of the game. Ridgway led 41-19 at the half and 45-19 in the third quarter en route to the 33-point win. Both teams got numerous players into the game in the second half.
Ridgway had 10 players score in the game. Allegretto said the balance and being able to give more players playing time has been helpful.
"We have more players that can play, in the past I've only five or six, seven guys," Allegretto said. "This year, I can play 12 guys so that's good. We're so young, we need to fix mistakes and I don't have the practice time to fix the mistakes."
Ben Jaques and Eric Matheson each had 11 points to lead Ridgway. Aaron Sorge had 10 and Dom Aiello had nine.
Ridgway faces Johnsonburg in first round of the Elk County Holiday Tournament on Tuesday. Game time is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Allegretto said he wants to work on the team's press heading into the tournament.
"If we're going to be a pressing team, we need to work on our press, it needs to get better," Allegretto said. "Also in the halfcourt defense, we're going to get better at that. We had some kids doing a little too much gambling, too much freelancing. We'll straighten that out."
In junior varsity action, Ridgway won 59-22. District championship teams from 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1992 were honored at halftime of the varsity game. A canned food drive was also held at the game Wednesday.
Austin 10 9 3 11 - 33
Ridgway 19 22 17 8 - 66
Austin - 33
Patrick Valenti 3 2-2 9, Michael Valenti 3 0-0 7, Damien Lucas 3 1-2 7, Isaac Van Why 2 0-0 4, Bryan Brooks 1 0-0 2, Wesley Clark 1 0-0 2, Caleb Nichols 1 0-0 2, Totals 14 3-4 33.
Ridgway - 66
Eric Matheson 4 2-2 11, Ben Jaques 4 1-2 11, Aaron Sorge 5 0-0 10, Dom Aiello 4 0-0 9, Beau Bellotti 2 2-2 6, Jordan Lundin 3 0-1 6, Mike Cappiello 2 0-0 4, Alex Oknefski 2 0-0 4, Kevin Marnatti 0 3-4 3, Kyle Schutz 1 0-0 2, Totals 27 8-11 66.
3-pointers: Austin 2 (P. Valenti 1, M. Valenti 1), Ridgway 4 (Jaques 2, Aiello 1, Matheson 1). |
