Ridge wins district after intense game

The Rams played McDonald for a fourth time this season, winning all four games.
By JOHN BASSETTI
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
STRUTHERS -- After a very fast 22-minute first half of Friday's Division IV boys district final, Mineral Ridge and McDonald continued their furious pace, only slowing it down for free throws and timeouts.
When all the racing stopped, Ridge was on top, 58-55.
With the expiration of time came a district championship and berth to next week's regional at the Canton Fieldhouse.
"Luckily, Lord's will, we won and we're going to Canton and they're not," Ridge coach Del Ruiter said of the fourth meeting between the teams this season and a 4-0 sweep for the Rams (21-2).
Micah Hall made two free throws with 44.7 seconds remaining to give Ridge a 57-52 cushion before Josh Garland added another at 0:11.
No lead safe
It wasn't until Hall grabbed McDonald's last goal attempt -- a miss by Andy Timko with two seconds left -- that the game was decided.
"Usually, I have trouble with my free throws," Hall said. "But ever since my freshman year, whenever we get in a tournament or something big and I go to shoot free throws, I can calm myself down. I don't even think about the situation, just like we're in practice."
Hall finished with 19 points, one fewer than McDonald's Bradley Hinton.
Hall epitomized the style of play characteristic of Ridge: battling for rebounds on either end, chasing loose balls extra hard anytime or attacking the dribbler when on defense.
"I didn't think they had a true point guard," Hall said. "So, down the stretch, we went after whoever was dribbling or whoever had the ball."
McDonald trailed at halftime, 28-25 and could have folded when it fell behind 49-38.
"When you're up by 11 with several minutes to go and it's McDonald vs. Mineral Ridge, you never know what's going to happen," Hall said.
Last regional trip
The district crown ended a 17-year drought.
Ruiter got an e-mail from a former Ridge player saying that he was in Panama coaching the Belize national team in a Central American tournament.
He [Kevin Siroki] said it was 17 years ago -- it was here at Struthers -- when he was on the last Rams team to advance to regionals," Ruiter said. "He's going for the gold medal tonight [in a Central American tournament] and we were too, so how about both of us going for a win. Mineral Ridge alumni had their hearts here even though they were far away."
Hall, too, had some extra incentive. A brother, Malachi, had an opportunity to advance to regionals a few years ago.
"He was in the same situation," Micah Hall said, "but they lost on one basket. So he told me, 'Don't go out like that.' So we had to win this [district final] for them."
Ridge's ball-hawking and athleticism gave it enough of an edge to offset an offensive weakness on the perimeter, one that McDonald wanted to take advance of with its zone defense.
Best method
"I said it all season long, we don't have many outside shooters," Ruiter said. "Therefore, we have to work it around and see if we can find the gaps in the zones and work it on the inside."
McDonald coach Jeff Rasile thought that a couple turnovers and follow-up baskets by Ridge in the third quarter were momentum-killers for the Blue Devils.
"A couple guys charged the ball or ran to a rebound and they got some breakout layups which killed us," he said. "We were fighting back [tied 36-36] and it seemed like it turned in their favor [when Ridge had a 13-2 run in the third quarter]. We had the ball twice and could have taken the lead to get over that hump, but, unfortunately, we couldn't do it to get that lead."
Vance Keirsey added 10 points for the winners and Garland had nine.
For McDonald (16-9), Steven Hughes finished with 12 points and Timko 11.