Panthers finish fourth
The Ridgeland Panthers ran their winning streak to five last week and had a shot to make it six in a row, but couldn’t pull off the sweep against Heritage and ended up as the No. 4 seed for this week’s Region 6-AAAA tournament.
Ridgeland boys 57, Heritage 52
Last Tuesday, Senior Night in Panther Gymnasium was a tight game from start to finish as Heritage led by one after the first period and held a slim 27-26 lead at intermission. Ridgeland would pull even to start the fourth period before going on to claim the victory.
Markeith Montgomery shined brightest for the Panthers with 19 points, followed by nine each from Christian Battle and Markeion Jones. Grayson Moore added eight and Fred Norman put up seven in the win.
Cole Wilcox had 17 points to lead Heritage. Tylon Gaines finished with nine and Blake Bryan added eight.
Ridgeland boys 76, Heritage 62
Several times in the second half on Friday night, it looked as if the Panthers were about to take the lead from the Generals.
But in a game full of important runs, Heritage’s 9-0 spurt late in the third quarter proved to be the decisive one and the Generals earned the No. 3 seed for the region tournament.
Ridgeland (9-15, 6-6) used a 13-0 first half run to help take a 30-29 lead at the break, but the Generals came out of the locker room and immediately went on a 12-4 run.
The Panthers used a trey by Markeion Jones and a driving lay-up by Grayson Moore to chop the Generals’ lead down to 43-41 with 2:57 left in the third quarter, but Heritage refused to give in and used the 9-0 run to build the lead back up to 52-41 to end the period.
C.J. Shackleford did his best to keep the Panthers in the game, hitting three 3-pointers in the fourth, but nine points would be as close as Ridgeland would get the rest of the night.
Bryan had 18 points to lead Heritage, followed by Luke Grant with 14, Wilcox with 13 and Gaines with 12.
Shackleford and Battle each had 14 points. Norman finished with nine and Moore added eight in the loss.
The 6-AAAA boys’ tournament is set to begin on Tuesday at Southeast Whitfield High School.
Ridgeland will face No. 5 seed Southeast in their first game at 4:30 p.m. The two teams split their regular season games and Southeast won a nonregion matchup at the Chattooga Christmas Classic.
Heritage girls 68, Ridgeland 37
The state-ranked Lady Generals got 14 points from Sydney Smith and 13 each from Reagan Armour and Emily Wiley in last Tuesday’s win in Rossville.
Brylee Dunn led Ridgeland with 12 points, while Amaya Harrington added nine.
Heritage girls 90, Ridgeland 46
Friday night’s clash in Ringgold saw the Lady Panthers hang with the Lady Generals nearly point-for-point for the first 14 minutes of the game and Ridgeland missed a chance to take the lead with just over three minutes left in the first half.
But the home team would need less than a minute to reel off an 8-1 run before going on to
a 43-27 cushion at the break. Heritage would then take control in the second half to win going away.
Smith had 24 points in the win, followed by Shayla Ludy and Ansley Bice with 15 each. Heritage ended the night with 13 3-pointers.
Dunn had 20 points to lead Ridgeland. Haley Sandridge added eight and Hailey Bryant finished with five.
The Lady Panthers were scheduled to open the region tournament on Monday against Pickens, whom they split with in the regular season.
Due to newspaper deadlines, results were unavailable as of press time.
Ridgeland head coach Ryan Pipes also confirmed on Friday that senior Sarah Meadows’ recent knee injury will cause her to miss the rest of the season.
Meadows was hurt in a 49-42 loss to Pickens on Jan. 27 and has not played in a game since the injury.
Meadows was fifth in the entire state in scoring at 25 points a game, according to state complied by MaxPreps. com.