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Ninth-seeded Mineral Ridge routs Brookfield
Lack of respect fuels ninth-seeded
Ridge in road rout of Brookfield
By Steve Wilaj
BROOKFIELD
The nine-seed.
When Mineral Ridge saw that’s where it was placed in the Division III, Warren Harding bracket, the Rams — after initially being upset — flipped a switch.
On Tuesday, sixth-seeded Brookfield was the first to catch Mineral Ridge’s fury, as the Rams routed the Warriors, 72-46, at Brookfield High School. Mineral Ridge (13-10) advances to play at second-seeded LaBrae on Friday in a sectional final.
“We’re the nine-seed and, honestly, we felt a little disrespected by that — I’m not gonna lie,” first-year Mineral Ridge coach Randy Riccitelli said. “So we were ready to play.”
Added Rams forward Albert Alli, who led all scorers with 29 points: “We got voted the nine-seed because nobody respected us. So that just gave us momentum to fight.”
Mineral Ridge came out punching from the start, taking a 29-20 lead into halftime. The Rams, who led by 11 after three quarters, then landed the knockout blow early in a fourth quarter in which they outscored Brookfield 25-10.
“Last year — from what I saw in the scorebook — Ridge had some trouble scoring in the fourth quarter,” said Riccitelli, an assistant at McDonald for the previous 12 years. “So that was an emphasis we put into this season — finishing games — and we did that.”
Christian DiRando added 18 points for the Rams, while Riko Rodriguez added nine points and 10 rebounds.
Brookfield (8-14) was paced by 16 points each from Marc Krami and Brian Hiner.
The Warriors committed 15 turnovers under Mineral Ridge’s pressing defense — a tactic the Rams implemented specifically for this matchup after scouting Brookfield.
“I think we got a little tired once we got behind,” Warriors coach Bill Kovach said. “We had to play man defense and we’re not a very good man team — we tried to stay in a zone this year as long as we could. But we couldn’t because we were losing.
“So we tried to make something happen, but they have some very good ball-handlers that got by us. We’re slow in a few positions and they took advantage of that.”
Krami drained an incredible three-quarters court heave to close the third quarter, cutting Mineral Ridge’s lead to 47-36. However, Alli answered with a 3-pointer to open the fourth quarter, swinging the momentum back to the Rams.
“It’s tournament basketball, so whatever happens, you can’t quit,” Alli said. “You have to keep going. So we knew we just had to get back at it.”
Alli finished 11 of 15 from the field and 3 of 4 at the foul line.
“He has an injury, but he’s battling for me,” Riccitelli said. “He’s been sitting out practices, but he shows up for games and performs.”
Mineral Ridge may need another big game from Alli to down LaBrae. But no doubt, the Rams already have the fury of the nine-seed on their side.
“[LaBrae’s] a very well-coached team,” Riccitelli said. “They’re going to expect to win on their home court, so we’re gonna have to really bring it on Friday night. We’re the nine-seed, so we’re playing with house money as far as I’m concerned. We’re gonna go give it everything we have.”