It is the movie that has been played in the Ninth Region girls basketball tournament a number of times over the years.
The Ryle Raiders girls basketball team (23-8) builds a lead in the first half then either pulls away in the second half or finds ways to keep it on the way to another region tournament win. In this case, Ryle took the lead for good with a 7-0 run in the second quarter and made it stand in a 51-42 victory over the Highlands Bluebirds (23-9) on Sunday at Truist Arena in Highland Heights.
Ryle moved to 7-0 in region quarterfinal games since Katie Haitz took over the program in 2015. The Raiders also moved to a region-best 15-3 record over that same time frame.
“We finally started controlling the tempo of the game,” Haitz said. “There for a little bit, they did a good job of speeding us up when we didn’t want to. We weren’t controlling that part and then obviously, we were getting ourselves in foul trouble. Once we started slowing ourselves down, moving the ball and making them have to play more defense, we were able to get the shots that we wanted to get.”
This game came down to defensive stops. Ryle had 36 to 30 for Highlands and outscored the Bluebirds in points per possession, 1.11-.86.
“We told the girls when they walk out of this locker room, hold their heads high,” said Jaime Walz-Richey, Highlands head coach. “Everybody hates to lose. But the effort they gave, they have nothing to be ashamed of. They came out from a 12-18 season last year. So credit goes to them and the team that they’ve become.”
Ryle won the rebounding battle, 29-25 including a 21-17 advantage on the defensive boards. The game featured a nice battle of 6-foot-2-inch centers in Raiders junior Sarah Baker and Highlands sophomore Marissa Green. Green finished with 14 points and Baker had 11 to go with five rebounds despite battling foul trouble.
But the biggest key for Ryle is limiting Green to just four rebounds. Green came into the game averaging 17.7 points and 9.1 rebounds per game. Green has recorded some triple-doubles this year using her size to turn away a number of shots in the paint. Green blocked six shots in this game.
“We really talked about that you have to give the effort to box people out,” Haitz said. “They only get one shot. We’ve really honed on that since the Cooper game (a 61-48 loss in the 33rd District championship Friday).”
Both teams tried to display their usual balanced scoring attack. Ryle junior forward Quinn Eubank put together another solid game with 18 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals.
But the other Raider starters in freshman forward Jaelyn “JJ” Jones scored eight points with senior guards Austin Johnson and Abby Holtman scoring six points each. Senior guards Emerson Fong, Meredith Snider and junior Gracie Carrigan came in and gave some nice contributions off the bench.
“I feel like we pick up what we’re supposed to be doing and I focus on the little things,” Fong said. “We all know our job on the court and we all work together. We all support each other. We love to see each other do good things on the court.”
Highlands has just one senior in four-year starting point guard Alyssa Harris. Harris had four steals in her final game as a Bluebird. Her younger sister in sophomore forward Adrienne Harris made 4 of 9 three-point tries on her way to 14 points in what may also be her last game in the Highlands uniform. The family is planning to move to Florida after the school.
“I’m super proud of my team. They made a huge improvement from last year and I can only hope for the best for them to keep improving in the years to come,” Alyssa Harris said. “That was my goal from the beginning of the year. I wanted to get back to the legacy of Highlands basketball not only for myself, but for my teammates to grow next year.”
The first half saw eight lead chances and one tie. Highlands led 10-8 after the first quarter. Green had an offensive putback and Adrienne Harris hit a three from the right wing to give Highlands a 10-6 before Eubank had an offensive putback with 28.2 seconds left.
Holtman hit a three and Baker a jumper to put Ryle up 13-10 to start the second quarter before Highlands freshman guard Kaylee Mills made a three from the left wing to tie at 13. Two Johnson scores and an Eubank free throw put Ryle up 18-13. But freshman Saylor Macke and Green recorded consecutive three-point plays to give Highlands a 19-18 lead with 4:08 left in the first half.
That’s when Ryle made its run. Eubank scored two buckets then Jones made a three from the right corner to put Ryle up 25-19 with 2:10 left in the half. After Green scored again, Jones made another three from the right wing with seven seconds left to make it 28-21 Raiders.
Highlands had a huge chance to cut it to four with 1.7 seconds left when freshman forward Katie Bucher drew a foul attempting a three-point play. She made one to make it 28-22 Ryle at halftime.
Ryle extended the lead to 38-27 with 4:37 left in the third quarter after a Johnson score. But after a timeout, Highlands trimmed it to 38-33 with 2:39 left in the half. Green scored and hit a free throw before Alyssa Harris made a three. The Raiders led 40-35 entering the fourth quarter.
“They were putting pressure on our guards and we just had some ill-advised turnovers and we missed some shots,” Richey said. “We had some good looks that just didn’t go in. Ryle’s a good team. You have Abby (Holtman) and Quinn (Eubank), who are their (NCAA) Division I players and are tough to guard. Then you have Sarah Baker inside who put a lot of physicalness on Marissa every time she touched the ball.”
Highlands cut that lead down to three twice in the fourth quarter including 42-39 with 5:18 left in the game after Macke made two free throws. That is when Ryle called a timeout then employed a stall tactic passing the ball around the perimeter trying to force Highlands out of its 2-3 zone. The Raiders even attacked the basket one time before quickly passing it back out of the paint.
The strategy worked wonder taking more than two minutes off the clock. Holtman found Baker for a wide-open layup in the right post to put Ryle up 44-39.
“It was good just because they weren’t coming up off us and it was a little confusing considering we were up,” Holtman said. “It was good to get a bucket out of it just because we took so much time off the clock.”
Following a miss at the other end, Highlands had to foul six times to force Ryle to the free-throw line taking another 36 seconds off the clock. Jones stepped to the line with 2:24 left in the game and made two free throws to make it 46-39 Raiders. Eubank then made 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch to help the Raiders pull away.
“(My teammates) have been in these types of situations before so they definitely helped calm me down making sure I wasn’t scared to shoot them and we shoot a lot of free throws in practice so I was pretty confident,” Jones said. “Putting up a lot of repetitions helped.”
The Raiders are 5-1 in region semifinal games since Haitz took over the program and 3-2 in region championship games. Ryle won three straight region titles between 2018 and 2020 and a state championship in 2019.
Highlands may have lost its fourth straight region quarterfinal game to the 33rd District runner-up since beating Boone County in 2015, But the Bluebirds return a good nucleus that could help them break down some region tournament barriers in the next several years.
RYLE — 8-20-12-11 — 51
HIGHLANDS — 10-12-13-7 — 42
Ryle (51) – Eubank 18, Baker 11, Jones 8, Holtman 6, Johnson 6, Carrigan 2
Highlands (42) – Green 14, Adrienne Harris 14, Alyssa Harris 5, Macke 5, Mills 3, Bucher 1
