Ridgeland hoopsters bow out in opening round

The Ridgeland Panthers put up quite a fight in their Region 7- AAAA tournament opener last Tuesday night, but ultimately saw their season come to an end with a 68-61 setback at Heritage.

Heritage led by three points after the first period and the back-and-forth first half continued in the second quarter as the second-seeded Generals took a 32-26 lead into the locker room.

Seventh-seeded Ridgeland would briefly cut the lead to three, but gave up an 11-0 run and trailed 56-45 headed into the fourth. The deficit would grow to 17 early in the fourth when

Ridgeland suddenly snapped to life.

Matthew Ramsey, Kyan Clark and Carter Platt all connected on 3-pointers in the next two minutes to trim the Heritage lead down to eight. Then, after a pair of Heritage free throws, Ramsey and Platt both hit threes coming out of a timeout and the Panthers found themselves staring at just a four-point hole with less than 90 seconds remaining.

However, an upset would not be in the cards as the Generals scored the final three points of the night to seal the victory.

Ridgeland (5-17) got 18 points in the paint from Judd Anderson and 13 from Chase Hickman. Ramsey and Clark both scored nine points, followed by Zack

Harrison and Platt with six each.

The 2020-2021 season also came to a close for the seventhseeded Ridgeland Lady Panthers last Monday night as they were beaten by second-seeded Northwest Whitfield, 70-17, in a tournament game in Tunnel Hill.

Individual scoring for Ridgeland (3-21) was not available as of press time.