Nearly 60 combined turnovers and more than 45 fouls made for a less-than-pretty 43-29 win for the Valley Falls varsity girls’ basketball team Friday over Pleasant Ridge, but the Dragons and coach Todd Gish will take the victory.
The win improved the Dragons’ record to 4-4 going into midseason tournament play. A big turnover advantage for Valley Falls offset a Rams rebounding advantage to help the Dragons get the win.
The Dragons kept the Rams off the board for the first couple minutes of the game en route to building a 10-3 lead. The 7-point advantage held at 12-5 Valley Falls entering the second quarter.
The Dragons pulled farther away in the second quarter as they ended the half on a 7-3 scoring spurt to hold a 21-11 halftime lead. Eleven first-quarter turnovers for the Rams ended up as a total of 20 for the first half to help fuel the deficit for Pleasant Ridge.
Valley Falls struggled in the early going of the second half as the Rams scored the first 5 points of the third quarter to cut the lead in half. The Dragons regained control, however, as junior guard Abbey Kearney scored off a baseline drive and sophomore Macie Herrig scored off a steal and was fouled to stretch the lead back to 9. Herrig missed the free throw but senior forward Bethany Myers grabbed the rebound and Herrig hit an open 3-pointer to make the lead 12 at 30-18 Dragons. The Dragons would score the final 9 points of the quarter all together to take a 32-18 lead into the fourth quarter.
Fouls helped draw out the final quarter of play as neither team got on the board again until less than six minutes were left in the game. Senior Bailey Sherretts finally broke the ice for Valley Falls with a short jumper with about five minutes left in the game to keep the lead at 14. That’s the way the game ended as the Dragons salted away the 43-29 win.
Dragons’ leading scorer Kearney wasn’t at the top of her game and played through foul trouble but still led the way for Valley Falls with 16 points, 5 rebounds and 9 steals. Herrig added 7 points, and Myers scored 7 points with 6 rebounds for the Dragons. Pleasant Ridge was led by 8 points from senior Holly Skaggs and 9 rebounds from junior Cassy Roberts. The Rams had 35 turnovers and 25 fouls compared to 21 turnovers and 21 fouls for the Dragons.
Gish said the win was good as several players had to step up and look to contribute more.
“It’s never a question of effort for us,” Gish said. “The girls work hard. We’ve been trying to execute more consistently. Tonight it was hard to get into a rhythm with all the foul calls. I’m trying to get them sold on running the offense and making the other team play defense. We did enough tonight to get the win.”
Ridge boys 56, Valley Falls 28
The Ram varsity boys jumped out to an early lead and didn’t look back in dropping the Dragons to 3-5 on the season.
The difference in the game wasn’t abundantly clear through some statistics as the Rams outrebounded the Dragons, 25-21, and forced 17 Dragon turnovers while committing 10. It was a consistent offensive attack that got the Rams the win.
The Dragons scored the first basket of the game but the Rams put up the next 10 points to take a solid lead with about three minutes left in the opening quarter. Dragons junior forward Brooks Glassel hit a short jumper to get Valley Falls back on the board with 2:40 left in the quarter, then scored off a steal and ended the quarter with a 3-pointer at the buzzer to keep the Dragons in the game down, 15-9, entering the second quarter.
Glassel started the second quarter with a 3-pointer but those would be his only points of the quarter as the Rams went on a 21-4 run from there to close out the half. Keying the run were two 3-pointers from Rams senior Matt Hager and two 3-point plays from senior Terell Jordan. The Rams scored the last 11 points of the half to take a 36-16 lead into halftime.
The Dragons cut the lead to 16 early in the second half but the Rams pulled back away to lead by 23 at 49-26 entering the fourth quarter. The junior varsities played a chunk of the fourth quarter as the Rams held on to a 56-28 win.
The Dragons were led by 14 points from Glassel and 7 points from junior Alex Nottingham. Senior Riley Bunde pulled down 7 rebounds.
