Ridgeland falls to hot-shooting Northwest, Pickens
The temperature outside of the Ridgeland gymnasium last Tuesday night was frigid, but inside, nothing was hotter than the second-half shooting of the Northwest Whitfield Bruins.
The Bruins, who held a slim 41-36 advantage over upsetminded Ridgeland at halftime, erupted for 65 points in the second half to turn a close game into a 106-64 runaway.
The Panthers led 27-19 in the second quarter, only to see Northwest start to find its range late in the half. Ridgeland attempted to hang around in the early stages of the third quarter as they narrowed the gap down to 50-44. However, that’s when Northwest turned on the afterburners as they ended the quarter on a 23-4 run.
It was more of the same in the final period as the Bruins racked up 33 points, despite emptying the benches midway through the period.
Fred Norman, Jr. had 17 points to lead Ridgeland, followed by Riley Harrison with 10. Khris Walker and Kobe Lewis had eight points apiece, while Ethan Moyer finished with six. Cedric Shropshire and Zach Harrison both finished with five points. Jordan Mclin had three points and K’yan Clark added two in the loss.
Friday night at Pickens, the Panthers stayed within striking distance all night long and erupted for 26 points in the fourth quarter. However, their season-high of 69 points still was not enough as the Dragons picked up a narrow 72-69 victory.
Nathan Carver drained five 3-pointers and finished with a team-high 17 points for Ridgeland (0-4, 0-2). Norman and Moyer had 13 points each, followed by Walker with nine points and Riley Harrison with eight.
The Lady Panthers fell behind powerhouse Northwest 27-6 after the first quarter and endured an 80- 33 loss.
Fran King led Ridgeland with seven points. D’erika Ervin and Asia Silmon had six each, while Kyla Hamby and Kiera Foster added four each. Cordasia Watkins finished with three, Ciera Foster had two and Makenzie Howard added one point to complete the scoring.
Against Pickens, the Lady Panthers fell to 0-2 in 6-AAAA play and 0-4 overall as the home team stretched out a six-point lead with five minutes to play into a 74- 52 victory.
Ervin had 12 points for Ridgeland in the loss, while King added 11 points.