Raiders have no peer in first tier

South Range’s Abby Schuler had 11 rebounds in a 51-38 win against Lisbon.

By TOM WILLIAMS

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

LISBON — Even the coach of this year’s best girls basketball team in the Inter Tri-County League Tier One is a little surprised.

“I don’t think anyone expects to go 9-0,” said Matt Reel of South Range’s start. “We played some teams from Division II and we know how balanced this league is.

“We’re thrilled to be here, but we know we haven’t accomplished anything yet,” said Reel, who agreed that his undefeated Raiders “may have surprised a few people.”

Thursday’s 51-38 victory over Lisbon (7-2, 4-2) has the Raiders (9-0, 5-0) atop the league standings. South Range was 10-12 last year in Reel’s first season as a varsity coach.

“He’s an amazing coach,” senior Autumn Carter said. “My freshman and sophomore years were nothing like [this]. He’s just improved the program so much.

“I hoped that this might happen but I never imagined that we’d get this far [unbeaten] — it’s just a great feeling.”

Sophomore point guard Caitlin Carter — Autumn’s sister — sparked the Raiders with 17 points, with eight of them coming in the second quarter during a 10-0 run that wiped out a 12-7 Lisbon lead.

Autumn Carter scored 13 points and pestered the Blue Devils with seven steals and eight rebounds.

The Raiders outrebounded the Devils, 44-38, with Abby Schuler pulling down 11. Patty Schuster came off the bench to score 10 points, eight of them in the final quarter as the Raiders pulled away.

Caitlin Carter said the key was containing Lisbon senior guard Emily Smith.

“And we needed to keep the ball away from the middle from [Mindy Jackson],” Carter said.

Smith made two 3-pointers in the first quarter as the Raiders struggled with turnovers. She didn’t make a basket the rest of the game. Jackson had 12 rebounds, one block and seven points. Megan Reynolds scored 10 points.

“We’re crying tears of joy instead of just tears,” Carter said. “We’ve worked hard for this.”

Trailing 21-16 at halftime, Lisbon senior Erica Snoddy scored the game’s next five points. The Raiders responded with a 10-2 run for a 31-23 lead.

“We got even with them, but then it seemed that we just couldn’t buy a basket after that,” Lisbon coach Jamie Entriken said. “[Autumn] Carter was a nice player for them as a junior and she’s being a great leader for them now.

“They’re young and they’re athletic,” Entriken said. “They don’t do anything fancy but they are solid in what they do.”

In the fourth quarter, South Range made seven free throws to pull away.

“That gave us a huge kick,” Reel said of the Raiders making 14 of 16 free throws. “We’ve been working on it because for a few games, we were something like [shooting] 30 percent from the line.”

Reel was Canfield’s freshman coach for Pat Pavlansky for eight seasons before stepping into a varsity role.

“I was always looking for the right opportunity,” said Reel, a Canfield High algebra teacher. “It wasn’t something where I was anxious to leave because Coach Pav treated me great.

“But I wanted to see what I could do on my own,” said Reel, who credited his assistants Mike Roussos (former Canfield junior varsity coach) and Kerrie Haurin (former Cardinal player).

“South Range is a good school system and I thought this program was ready to explode,” Reel said. “And the girls have really bought in to what we’re trying to do.”

williams@vindy.com