Ritter rolls over St. Pius
Photo by Sarah Conard | Cardinal Ritter's Hazaria Washington keeps the ball from going out of bounds during the second half of a Class 3 sectional game Wednesday at Jefferson College.
HILLSBORO, mo. — The Cardinal Ritter girls basketball team could be the most disrespected defending state champion ever. Just ask them.
“With the boys playing tonight, we’re in their shadow,” junior Tiara Baker said after Ritter’s Class 3 sectional against St. Pius X at Jefferson College. “We’re trying to prove we’re not a one-time deal.”
Ritter is on its way after a 58-38 win over St. Pius. The Lions will play Greenville in the quarterfinals at Farmington on Saturday. Ritter beat Greenville 48-29 last year in the quarterfinals.
Ritter forced 32 St. Pius turnovers, including 12 in the fourth.
“I told the girls just to step up defensively and play ball like we can,” Ritter coach Darren Wade said.
After a slow start, Ritter found itself trailing 15-10 early in the second quarter. But the Lions turned up their patented defensive pressure to power an 11-0 run to take a 21-15 lead. Five of those points came directly off turnovers.
“We’re just a defensive-minded team,” Baker said. “We kind of slacked the entire first half. We didn’t play to our defensive principles. We just stepped it up.”
Hazaria Washington, last season’s Post-Dispatch player of the year, scored a game-high 26 points for Ritter (24-4).
“If it was open, I took it,” Washington said. “I guess they just kept leaving me open.”
“She stepped up her game,” Wade said. “I’ve been on her all season, saying you’ve got to step your game up.”
The 11-0 run put Ritter up for good. St. Pius (26-3) cut the deficit to 23-21 on two free throws by Gabrielle Moser to start the third, but the Lancers couldn’t get any closer.
A 6-0 run midway through the third, again sparked by several turnovers, gave Ritter a comfortable 35-26 lead. Another 11-0 run in the fourth made it a blowout. Baker scored 14 for Ritter and Breanna McCullough added eight and pulled down nine rebounds.
“It’s that constant pressure that hurt us,” St. Pius coach Aaron Portell said. “I told the girls coming in that we had to match their energy at the beginning of the game. My worst thought was that they would jump us early. We matched them early on, but their pressure wore us down.”
Melissa Collins scored a team-high 11 points for St. Pius. Moser added 10.
BOYS GAME
Ritter jumped out to an 8-0 lead against Herculaneum and coasted to a 71-34 victory. Ritter (24-4) will play Kennett in the quarterfinals Saturday at Farmington.
“We think we can play a little better,” Ritter coach Marvin Neals said. “We can play better defense. We left too many holes on our defense.”
Cameron Biedscheid scored a game-high 24 for Ritter. Mylin Jordan scored 18 and Eric Clark added 12.
Drew Achter and Aaron Fuller each scored seven to lead Herculaneum (11-16).
