After heading on the road to Hebron, Ryle’s girls basketball team came home with the No. 2 seed in the 33rd district tournament.
It was much more competitive than the final score says, but the Lady Raiders prevailed for a 67-52 win over Conner.
On a Ryle team that has many stars, it wasn’t just one or two that stepped up. The
Lady Raiders had four players hit the double-digit mark led by an 18 point, six 3-
pointer performance by Kassidy Peters. Quinn Eubank added 17, Jaelyn Jones gave
15 and Sarah Baker chipped in 10.
“When you have four players with 10 or more and you’re hitting from the outside
like we were, that makes it difficult for any team,” Ryle head coach Katie Haitz said
“They were being patient, moving the ball, reading the attacks, and then attacking
the rim.”
The Lady Cougars’ star, Anna Hamilton, had a stellar performance with a game-
high 22 points.
“She works hard, she’s positive, and the girls look up to her,” Conner head coach
Michelle Gambrel said. “She’s here after practice. During the day, she does her
workouts. She deserves everything she gets. In practice, she’s one of the hardest
workers and not a lot of best players are always like that.”
Aubree Depenbrock contributed 10 points for Conner as well.
The Lady Raiders hit nine threes, getting open looks that came from moving without
the ball.
“If you’re standing its so easy to guard.” Haitz said. “You want them to have to pay
attention to everyone and if you’re just standing there and not being a threat, it
makes it easy for them to just focus on whoever has the ball. We did a good job of
shifting the ball one more time to the open player when they were double teaming.”
It looked like Conner had dug themselves deep in a hole early on, trailing 20-9 by the
end of the first quarter. Once the Lady Cougars settled down, they cut the deficit to one with four minutes to go in the first half. They outscored Ryle, 14-10, in the
second quarter and went to the locker room down 30-23.
“I could tell the first two minutes that they were pretty nervous because we had a
few turnovers.” Gambrel said. “We realized there was no pressure on us though. Not
one person other than their parents thought we were going to win the game. We just
played hard and didn’t get outplayed.”
It remained in reach the rest of the way, but Ryle took care of business. By the end
of the third quarter, it was 51-38 in the Lady Raiders’ favor. Conner again came battling back within eight, but Ryle went on to close the game by outscoring Conner 12-5 in the last three minutes.
Though Ryle secured the No. 2 seed, there will be a rematch between the Lady
Raiders and Lady Cougars in the district tournament. A game Conner has been
preparing for.
“It didn’t matter, win or lose.” Gambrel said. “We’ve played the strength of schedule
we have to help us. We can now prepare for what we’re going to do in three works
from tomorrow. We’ve taken our hits, we’ve struggled, but who cares what your
record is in the end. If we can come out and beat Ryle in the district and make it to
the regional tournament then it’s worked.”
Conner is now 10-13 and have a home meeting with Dixie Heights up next, Friday at
7 p.m.
The Lady Raiders move to 15-7 and they stay on the road for a clash with Mercy
Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m.
LADY RAIDERS 67, LADY COUGARS 52
CONNER — 9-14-15-14 — 52
RYLE — 20-10-21-16 — 67
Scoring
CONNER (52) — Hamilton 22, Depenbrock 10, Craddock 6, Kerns 6, Brown 3, Fisher 3,
Everett 2
RYLE (67) — Peters 18, Eubank 17, Jones 13, Baker 10, Carrigan 7, McClain 2
Game Stats
3-Pointers:Â Conner 6, Ryle 9
Free Throws:Â Conner 7/11, Ryle 5/7
Fouls:Â Conner 13, Ryle 11
Records:Â Conner (10-13, 1-2), Ryle (15-7, 2-1)