Ridgeway girls capture district crown

from Commercial Appeal

A strong showing, led by an extremely strong sophomore class carried Ridgeway’s girls to a long-sought District 15-AAA tournament Monday night as the Roadrunners rolled to a 69-48 victory over Houston at Southwind.

Sophomores Breounna Humphrey, the tournament MVP, and Eryn Foster and freshman Brandi Beasley each had 14 points. Each dominated a quarter as the Roadrunners jumped to a 17-5 lead and kept a double-digit lead the rest of the game.

“We’ve been playing together for a long time, and we’ve wanted this a long time,” said Humphrey after the Roadrunners (27-2) added a district title to the MIAA crown they won over Central two weeks ago.

Beasley had five points, but Ridgeway was firing on all cylinders offensively and defensively in the opening period. Houston (21-8) turned the ball over seven times and missed its first six shots while falling behind 17-5.

The Mustangs started attacking the basket in the second quarter, and piled up the fouls on Ridgeway. Senior star Odequa Oigbokie and Foster each picked up three fouls. But Humphrey hit a pair of threes and finished with eight points in the period to stretch the advantage to 37-22. Sophomore backup Kendra Boone hit a pair of big buckets with both Oigbokie and Foster on the bench.

Oigbokie would get her fourth foul a minute into third quarter, and finished the night with only seven points. Houston briefly cut the deficit to 10 points. But Foster kept her foul total at three while stepping up with eight points and Humphrey added five more as Ridgeway made it a 19-point game, 53-34, going into the final quarter.’’

“We’ve been thinking we can take this all the way,” said Foster as she wiped away happy tears.
Humphrey, junior Ashley Jackson and soph Tieraney Paylor brought defensive energy, while Jackson and Paylor chipped in a dozen more points.

“We just played with a lot of poise when we needed it,” Ridgeway coach Rhonda Kendall said.
Jaida Roper had 15 points and Aysha Harris added 10 for the Mustangs, who hit only 20 of 35 free throws.

“Whether it was the stage or we just weren’t prepared, we opened the game out of synch and never really recovered,” said Mustangs coach Chad Becker, whose team had 22 turnovers in the contest.
Deposed district kingpin Overton shook off a one-point semifinal loss to Houston for a 38-31 win over Collierville in the third-place game.

Amber Holmes had 17 points, including five straight to break a 31-all tie early in the fourth quarter. Philecia Atkins added 10 while Jessica Brown had two-thirds of the Dragons’ offensive output with 20 points.

Ridgeway will host Whitehaven in the first-round of the Region 8-AAA tournament, while Houston will host East. Overton will play at White Station and Collierville plays at District 16-AAA champion Central.