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Western Reserve holds off Mineral Ridge
By lowell spencer
BEAVER TOWNSHIP
The Western Reserve High girls basketball team held off a ferocious comeback by Mineral Ridge in a 57-46 win in the Division IV tournament game at South Range High School.
“This is very big; it’s the first round of the tournaments,” Western Reserve senior Sissy Stubbs said. “We set our standards high, the tournament time for us is like a new season for us all over again.
“Coming out and winning this first game is really big.”
The Blue Devils jumped ahead with a 7-0 run to start. Midway through the second period, they had what appeared to be a comfortable lead at 22-6.
But to the Rams’ credit, they battled back.
The Rams chipped away at the deficit, trailing by 11 points at halftime.
The start of the second half saw the Rams continue to put pressure on the Devils.
Led by senior guard Abby Riffe, who tallied 17 pointst, the Rams pulled to within a point, 39-38, with 48 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
“I thought I saw that Western Reserve was getting a little bit tired and winded there in the third quarter,” Mineral Ridge coach Del Ruiter said. “Hey really slowed it down offensively, so I told the girls lets go at it.
“Push it up the court and see what happens,” Ruiter said. “Sure enough, we got down to [one], but couldn’t get any closer.”
The Devils reclaimed the momentum in the fourth quarter as Stubbs collected eight of her game-high 17 points. Senior Hannah Mowery added five of her 14 points in the final eight minutes.
“I still felt confident, and I’m sure the team did too,” Stubbs said. “No really shut down, no one let anyone down. In the end we really pulled through, and that’s what really matters.”
The Devils closed out the game outscoring the Rams, 18-8.
“Our kids have the tendency to kind of be satisfied with where they are at,” Western Reserve coach Josh Scott said.
“I think they knew, ‘OK, we are going to have a good day today’, and they kind of thought maybe that was the way the whole game was going to go,” Devils Coach Josh Scott said.
“But those guys played really hard,” Scott said. “I think we kind of took that start for granted there. I think a lot of it was mental today.”
Up next for the Blue Devils is a second-round contest against Southern Local on Thursday night.
Scott said his team must not look to far ahead.
“That’s definitely our goal to get to [top seed] Lowellville, and get a shot,” Scott said. “There are some good teams here.
“Crestview had a great day today, and Jackson-Milton got a big win, so we keep stressing one game at a time,” Scott said.