Wolves rally to cut deficit but fall short in region road loss

WOODSTOCK — The Rome Wolves showed great resiliency in Friday night’s game at River Ridge, battling back from a 17-point secondhalf deficit to close with within five points in the final few minutes.

However, lack of execution and lack of composure cost the Wolves down the stretch, as River Ridge pulled away late and earned a 6247 Region 6-AAAAAA win.

Rome led the contest by as many as six points in the first quarter, but the homestanding Knights got hot in the second period and built a 13-point lead at the break. The lead grew to 17 in the third quarter before the Wolves made a push, closing to within 46-41 with just over six minutes to play.

However, some physical play — and emotional reactions to the physical play — led to some technical fouls, which gave River Ridge some easy points at the free throw line, and the Knights used a 10-1 closing run to seal the deal.

“I thought we fought hard — we cut it to five at one point, and we had all the momentum,” Rome head coach John Mcfather said after the game. “We were in a hole at halftime, but I thought we played a lot better in the second half. We shot the ball better, and our pressure really bothered them. But we’ve got to learn to keep our composure and deal with tough situations better.”

Rome has now dropped six of its last seven games, and has only broken the 60-point mark on offense in one of those games. The Wolves fell to 9-8 overall and 3-3 in the region, while River Ridge improved to 13-5 and 4-2.

“I thought our transition game was good tonight, and I thought we were aggressive and grabbed a lot of rebounds and got to a lot of loose balls,” said River Ridge coach Aaron Darling. “I thought in the first half, we didn’t defend very well, and I challenged our guys at halftime. They bought in and responded, and I like the fight that our guys showed. Rome is a very good team — 5 (Braxton Wade) can really shoot and 23 (Cameron Keith) got on a roll in the second half and brought them back. We played them last year in the state tournament, so I knew how good they were, and we knew this would be a tough game.”

Wade was the catalyst for Rome early on, scoring 10 of his team’s first 12 points, and the Wolves had a 14-8 lead after a layup by Darnell Collins. River Ridge slipped in front 17-16 at the end of the quarter, but the Knights started to light things up from beyond the arc after that. River Ridge hit four 3-pointers in the second quarter and built a 3522 lead at the break.

The Knights extended the lead to 44-27 with two minutes left in the third quarter before Keith caught fire for Rome. The senior forward drilled four 3-pointers in a two-minute span to close the gap to 46-41.

However, Rome only managed to hit one field goal over the final 6:58. Some pushing and shoving after a loose-ball foul with 2:55 to play led to several technical fouls, and another two technical fouls at the 2:11 mark gave River Ridge multiple trips to the free throw line. The Knights were 8-of-10 from the foul line in the fourth quarter, and Rome never could regain its offensive momentum and make another run.

“I like a lot of what I saw tonight,” Mcfather said, “but we have to learn to handle adversity better and keep our composure even when things don’t go our way.”

Wade had 23 points to lead Rome, while Keith finished with 21.

River Ridge was led by David Hansraj’s 18-point night, while Jay Mccord and Bret Senay each had 14 and Greyson Hopf chipped in 10.

Rome is back home on Tuesday for another region contest against Woodstock tipping off at 7:30 p.m.

In the Rome-river Ridge

girls game earlier on Friday: River Ridge 72, Rome 26 WOODSTOCK — If the Rome Lady Wolves wanted to see what kind of team it takes to win a Region 6-AAAAAA championship this year, they didn’t need to look any further than across the floor on Friday night.

In a matchup of two Elite Eight teams from Class AAAAAA last year, these schools met as Region 6 rivals for the first time this season, and the River Ridge Lady Knights dominated every phase of the game on their way to a resounding 72-26 win.

River Ridge, the No. 1-ranked team in Class AAAAAA, improved to 13-5 overall and stayed perfect in the region at 6-0.

After the game, Rome head coach Thomas Mcaboy was quick to give credit to River Ridge — but he also acknowledged that his team didn’t give the Lady Knights their best shot.

“They are a really good team, but I don’t think they are 46 points better than us,” he explained. “We weren’t at our best tonight. There are some things we’ve definitely got to fix. We’ve got to play better as a team, which we didn’t do

tonight. We had too much individual play, not enough sharing the basketball, too many bad shots...it’s definitely hard to come back against a good team like that when you play that way. We need to let this be a learning experience for us, that we have to play as a unit and we have to compete every day and work to improve.”

Rome (11-6, 4-2) came into Friday’s game having won 9 of its last 11 games, but River Ridge seized the momentum of the game from the opening tip. Sharpshooting guard Sophia Pearl, who has hit almost 40 percent of her three-pointers this season, came out of the gate sizzling, drilling back-toback triples to open the game.

Mataya Gayle then got on a run, scoring three quick baskets, and River Ridge led 12-5 early. Gayle finished the first quarter with 10 points, and Pearl added the other eight, as the Lady Knights took an 18-7 lead after the first period.

River Ridge continued the onslaught in the second quarter, going on a quick 10-2 run that culminated with a Pearl 3-pointer, forcing Mcaboy to call a timeout with the lead at 28-9. But the Lady Wolves’ offense just wasn’t clicking on this night, with Rome hitting

only one field goal and four free throws in the quarter. The Lady Wolves went to the locker room at halftime trailing 37-13.

The relentless Lady Knights attack continued in the second half, as they turned transition opportunities into easy buckets. They scored eight quick points to start the third quarter, and by the start of the fourth period, they had a commanding 57-19 lead.

“It’s definitely hard to come from behind against a team like that,” Mcaboy said. “They have very good guards, good post play and they are wellcoached. Their team plays really well together.”

Pearl finished with a gamehigh 20 points, including four 3-pointers, while Gayle scored 16 points and Makayla Roberson added 11 points.

For Rome, Griffin was the only player in double figures with 11 points.

The win was just the third for River Ridge in its last eight games. However, all five losses have been against powerhouse programs from out of state, including schools from Ohio, Alabama and Tennessee.

Rome returns to its home court on Tuesday at 6 p.m. to host region foe Woodstock.