Ringgold girls finish as runner-up in 6-AAA
The Ringgold Lady Tigers opened the Class 3A state tournament this past weekend as the No. 2 seed from Region 6 after falling to Sonoraville, 53-43, in a battle of state-ranked teams for the region championship Monday night, Feb. 10, at North Murray High School.
Ringgold scored the first four points of the game and looked to be off and running. But a combination of cold shooting and tough defense by the Lady Phoenix would spell trouble for the Blue-and-White.
Sonoraville would end the quarter on a 15-2 run to take a nine-point lead and they would go on to a 24-10 advantage at halftime as the Lady Tigers adjourned to the locker room to regroup.
Slowly but surely, the Ringgold offense begin to find its range late in the third quarter, but only after the Lady Phoenix had ballooned their lead out to 20 points at 38-18.
The Lady Tigers began to try and chip away at the lead over the last eight minutes of the game. A nice play by Maggie Reed in traffic resulted in a lay-up that chopped the deficit down to 40-31 with 5:18 to play.
But Ringgold was never able to completely get over the hump. After Sonoraville briefly pushed its advantage back to 13 points with 2:30 to go, Ringgold would score six straight to pull within seven points of the lead on a 3-pointer by Sydney Pittman with 1:25 left. However, the Lady Phoenix would hit their free throws down the stretch and go on to claim the title.
“Sonoraville came out and made everything they threw up there, especially in that first quarter,” Ringgold head coach Margaret Stockburger said. “They’re a really good tournament team and we knew that it was going to be that way, but we just dug a hole for ourselves (in the first quarter).
“I’m very proud of the girls for how they fought back, especially in the third
and fourth quarters, because they could have just layed down, but they didn’t. They showed that grit in the second half and hopefully they’ll continue to build on that.”
Ringgold got 12 points from Rachel Lopez and 11 from Rachel Akers. Reed finished with seven points. Pittman and Riley Nayadley had five points apiece, while Sarah Headrick added three.
Alexa Geary led Sonoraville with 22 points, including four made 3-pointers.