Hopefully someone has details, I just got the final score texted to me.  

Wider margin than I expected, but guessing it says more about Ryle and their youth. Holy Cross is hard to play against, much less breaking in a bunch of new players.  

Holy Cross has plenty of new blood themselves returning only 3 players that had significant playing time last year.  The glaring difference was the Holy Cross defense.  At one point Ryle turned the ball over on 5 straight possessions.  However HC had a hard time stopping Jones who had half of the Raider's points.  McClain was held to 6 I believe maybe 8.  I was surprised they didn’t get the ball into her more.  She was being guarded by 5-8 Ella Lehmkuhl a senior who has missed the last two basketball seasons due to soccer injuries.  So she had 9 inches on her.   Holy Cross was lead by Aumani Nelson who had 32 points. Holy Cross was up by 14 with 1::45 left in the third and Ryle made a run cutting it to 9.  HC put in Rhodes who is a lock down defender with a huge wingspan who forced some turnovers and HC stretched out the lead to win by 18.  I imagine both teams will mature throughout the season and improve. 

A couple observations on the Raider side of the ball:

-Ryle has only 2 players returning with substantial “varsity” experience- Jones and McClain 

- At one point there were 3 eighth graders on the court- who in time will be a force to be reckoned with. 

-Ryle is missing a leader on the floor- someone to calm the crazy or hype the moment. - Aschermann, Warner and Jones as the only Juniors need to step and fill this role as they seem to be on the floor the most.
 

- Turnovers were a huge problem across the board for the Raiders. 

Raiders are going to take some licks as they figure it out this season, but the young talent will develop. Holy Cross has some ballers! 

40 minutes ago, Ovrlkd said:

A couple observations on the Raider side of the ball:

-Ryle has only 2 players returning with substantial “varsity” experience- Jones and McClain 

- At one point there were 3 eighth graders on the court- who in time will be a force to be reckoned with. 

-Ryle is missing a leader on the floor- someone to calm the crazy or hype the moment. - Aschermann, Warner and Jones as the only Juniors need to step and fill this role as they seem to be on the floor the most.
 

- Turnovers were a huge problem across the board for the Raiders. 

Raiders are going to take some licks as they figure it out this season, but the young talent will develop. Holy Cross has some ballers! 

Ryle will definitely get better every game.  It is tough to rebuild when you lose the athletes they did. 

Holy Cross played this game without Sophomore D'Myah Williams. She is expected back tonight at St. Henry. She will be a huge part of their team this year.

After the St. Henry game tonight, the Indians will go to Highlands on Tuesday then play host to Cooper on Thursday. Will see 3 of the top 9th region teams in the first week. Good early season schedule to see where they are.

pixbymac - Katarina McElheney