Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Ridgeway holds off Overton in girls basketball

from Commercial Appeal

A big first half powered Ridgeway's girls to a long-sought District 15-AAA regular-season basketball title Tuesday, spoiling Overton's Senior Night with a 58-50 decision.

However, the postgame celebration was fairly subdued for the fifth-ranked Roadrunners (25-2, 14-0).
The reason was some spotty play in the second half that allowed the No. 7 Wolverines (25-5, 12-2) to cut a 20-point deficit to five before Ridgeway won it at the free throw line.

"We dominated Central, and beat their press effectively (in last Saturday's city championship game), but tonight we did not do a good job of handling the ball or the pressure," Ridgeway coach Rhonda Kendall said. "We're a young team and there will be tough stretches, but it's now postseason and we have to have more people than (freshman) Brandi Beasley step up and take care of the ball. Tonight it didn't happen and we have to tighten things up, starting now."

Overton's star senior Kelsey Briggs sat out most of the first quarter because of coming late to a practice, according to coach Lynn Smith.

The Roadrunners took full advantage, building a 26-8 lead in the opening period, and going into the halftime break with a 37-21 advantage.

Senior Odegua Oigbokie had eight of her team-high 16 points, Beasley scored 10 of her 12, and the Roadrunners were sharing the ball and getting scoring from most everyone who stepped onto the floor. Defensively they had Overton out of synch and the Wolverines stuck around largely because Philecia Atkins had a big quarter, with 10 of her 13 points, including a couple of threes.

"We never got our offense going, and because of that we really didn't settle into our defense until late in the game," Smith said. "So we went all-in with the press."

Attacking with three and four players for much of the second half, the Wolverine pressure unraveled Ridgeway. Amber Holmes picked up eight of her 11 points, many off turnovers. Briggs, who got just one 3-pointer late in the first half, started to find her range and caught fire in the fourth quarter, carrying Overton with 12 of her game-high 19 points.

But while Overton forced eight Ridgeway turnovers in the third period, the Wolverines could only close the gap to 44-31, giving up the ball six times themselves.

"We just didn't handle the ball right all that second half. We'll have to go back and work on that," Oigbokie said.

Smith lamented right back. "We'd give ourselves a chance with a steal, then give it right back."
With slightly more than two minutes to play, Holmes hit the first of two free throws. Then Erin Wilson came up with a steal after a Ridgeway rebound and fed it to Briggs for a layup that made it 48-43.

But Ridgeway finally broke the pressure long enough to get Oigbokie an easy bucket, an Overton turnover led to two Beasley free throws, and in the final seconds sophomore Breounna Humphrey (12 points) hit 4-of-6 free throws to clinch.

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