Lady Panthers scrap their way back over the .500 mark
Last week was an up-and-down one for the Ridgeland Lady Panthers, who got a big region win, suffered a tough region loss and scored a solid win over a longtime rival to take a winning overall record into the new week.
The visiting Lady Bobcats came out gunning in the opening quarter as they forged a 16-15 lead after the first eight minutes. However, they couldn’t keep up the pace as the Ridgeland defense made itself known over the next eight minutes.
Ridgeland held Gilmer to just five points in the second period to turn a onepoint deficit into a 32-21 halftime advantage, which gave them control of the game for good.
“We started making some shots (in the second quarter),” head coach Ryan Pipes explained. “It’s funny how when shots start dropping, good things start happening. Gilmer is usually a pretty good shooting team and they were hot early, but once we were able to get a few stops that got our confidence going.”
The Lady Panthers led by 14 to start the final period. Gilmer would make one final run to get the deficit down to eight with 4:15 to play, but a final 13-3 run by the home team over the next three minutes would spell the end of the night for the visitors from Ellijay.
Sarah Meadows hit three 3-pointers and finished with a gamehigh 28 points to go with eight rebounds, six assists and two steals. Brylee Dunn added 11 points, 10 boards ad seven blocked shots, while freshman Fran King dropped in 12 points, grabbed four rebounds and added four steals and three assists.
Southeast girls 54, Ridgeland 34
The Lady Panthers had trouble getting their offense on track all night long on Friday and fell to 3-4 in region play. They trailed by just four with five minutes to play, but saw the wheels fall off in the late stages of the game.
Meadows had 21 points for Ridgeland, followed by Dunn with nine.
Ridgeland girls 66, LFO 54
Meadows torched the nets for 31 points on Saturday night and the Lady Panthers scored a non-region road win at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe.
Amaya Harrington went for 15 points, followed by Dunn with eight and Fran King with six as Ridgeland improved to 10-9 overall on the year with the win.