Ryle 50 Conner 41

[StraightShooter]

Ryle comes from behind late to win. I am pretty sure that Conner led 34-27 with perhaps 5-6 minutes to go in the game and Ryle was playing very poorly. After an injury to one of the Ryle players - Douthit - that looked like a possible concussion (head hitting the floor in a scramble for the ball), the Lady Raiders looked like world beaters for 2 minutes as they go on a very quick 12-0 run and all of the sudden it is 39-34 with less than 4 minutes to play. Ryle then controlled the game the last 3 minutes and hit their FT's and Conner missed a bunch of 3's down the stretch. Ryle had led 23-15 early in the 3rd and did not force Conner out of the zone and were playing right into Conner's hands instead of forcing Conner to go man-to-man. Ryle was very fortunate to advance. Congrats to the Conner Lady Cougars on a nice 20-10 season.

[futurecoach]

Ryle comes from behind late to win. I am pretty sure that Conner led 34-27 with perhaps 5-6 minutes to go in the game and Ryle was playing very poorly. After an injury to one of the Ryle players - Douthit - that looked like a possible concussion (head hitting the floor in a scramble for the ball), the Lady Raiders looked like world beaters for 2 minutes as they go on a very quick 12-0 run and all of the sudden it is 39-34 with less than 4 minutes to play. Ryle then controlled the game the last 3 minutes and hit their FT's and Conner missed a bunch of 3's down the stretch. Ryle had led 23-15 early in the 3rd and did not force Conner out of the zone and were playing right into Conner's hands instead of forcing Conner to go man-to-man. Ryle was very fortunate to advance. Congrats to the Conner Lady Cougars on a nice 20-10 season.

 

See I don't think Ryle played very poorly at all. Conner had a great game plan, and made Ryle have to beat them from the outside. It's not like Ryle wasn't trying to get inside, they just wasn't able to. All the credit goes to Conner there.

 

Conner was up 6 with 6 minutes to go, and I hate to say it and I hope the girl is ok. However that injury to the Ryle player when down 6 might have been the best thing to have happened to Ryle. Conner had all the momentum and could tell Ryle was actually starting to play very tight at that point. However then the injury happened, which stopped the game for about 10 minutes. Which allowed Ryle to calm theirselves down, and also cooled off the momentum Conner had. Then as you said after that Ryle came out and made a few outside shots, and then caused a few turnovers for fast break points. I hope that player is ok and is able to play Thursday, but what is crazy about it. If she doesn't get hurt, Conner might have shocked the State tonight.

[Clyde]

I agree that Conner forced Ryle to shoot from the outside and often it wasn't Ryle's best shooters shooting the shots.

 

Great 2nd half by both Johnson and Jenna C.

 

I really like Conner's PG. What year is she?

 

Conner's staff did a nice job with this team.

[StraightShooter]

See I don't think Ryle played very poorly at all. Conner had a great game plan, and made Ryle have to beat them from the outside. It's not like Ryle wasn't trying to get inside, they just wasn't able to. All the credit goes to Conner there.

 

Conner was up 6 with 6 minutes to go, and I hate to say it and I hope the girl is ok. However that injury to the Ryle player when down 6 might have been the best thing to have happened to Ryle. Conner had all the momentum and could tell Ryle was actually starting to play very tight at that point. However then the injury happened, which stopped the game for about 10 minutes. Which allowed Ryle to calm theirselves down, and also cooled off the momentum Conner had. Then as you said after that Ryle came out and made a few outside shots, and then caused a few turnovers for fast break points. I hope that player is ok and is able to play Thursday, but what is crazy about it. If she doesn't get hurt, Conner might have shocked the State tonight.

 

Agreed. My one point was that all Ryle had to do was hold the ball with the 23-15 lead early in the 3rd quarter and force Conner out of the zone and it was game over. I have no idea why they let Conner sit back in a zone. Conner continued to play zone even when behind with 3 minutes left and Ryle finally held the ball and forced Conner into man-to-man and the Raiders easily scored against the man-to-man.

[buttels]

I did see Douthit on the bench at the end of the game, but word was a possible concussion. We do hope that it's nothing serious. Ryle hit 11 of 12 free throws in the 4th quarter, but I agree with the folks above. Douthit's injury timeout gave about 5-8 minutes for Ryle to rest up and take the wind from Conner's sails. Conner had outscored Ryle 16-8 in the 3rd quarter to take the lead. It was 34-28 when the injury occured in favor of the Lady Cougars with 6:10 to go.

 

Coach Stamm and his staff has done a great job in the 2 years they has been at Conner. A 20 win season was a big goal for Conner this year. They lose 4 seniors, Castleberry, Peacock, Ray & Watts. The upside is that the younger players are just coming off a JV Region Runner-up season and with Pluto, Porter, Clark & Scott returning as well, the well is far from dry.

[TripleSevens]

I agree that Conner forced Ryle to shoot from the outside and often it wasn't Ryle's best shooters shooting the shots.

 

Great 2nd half by both Johnson and Jenna C.

 

I really like Conner's PG. What year is she?

 

Conner's staff did a nice job with this team.

 

Clyde, what number did she wear?

[buttels]

#12 is Senior Chelsea Castleberry, #4 is Junior Emily Pluto

[jumpball]

Great job by the Lady Cougars last night - they came dangerously close to pulling off the upset! Love Coach Stamm's style. Connor will be fine next year as they have some nice returning players and a strong freshman class coming in. Who knows what the 33rd will look like next year?

 

Congrats Lady Raiders! Here you go - round 2 with Boone on Thursday. Raiders need to play their A game for all four quarters if they hope to get past Boone.

[Clyde]

#12 is Senior Chelsea Castleberry,

 

That's her. Strong player.

[RSkinner]

It was a great game and Kudos to both Aaron for his strategy and the Ryle players for their gritiness in making the comeback.

 

Because the newspaper I work for has turned into a pile of garbage when it comes to covering Northern Kentucky and because I am embarrassed my byline is on a story that got chopped to next to nothing in print (due to space) and online (for reasons no one probably knows), here is the gamer I filed from last night that provides some details and quotes:

33RD DISTRICT GIRLS SEMIFINALS: RYLE RALLIES AND BOONE ROLLS FOR 02-22-12

 

By Richard Skinner

Enquirer Contributor

 

A fourth-quarter injury to Ryle senior guard Tyianna Douthit and some pointed words from head coach Patti Oliverio to Douthit’s teammates as she was being attended to helped snap the Lady Raiders to attention in time to save their season.

Ryle trailed Conner in their 33rd District semifinal game on Tuesday at Conner, 34-28, at the time of Douthit’s injury with 6:14 left in the game, but then proceeded to go on an 11-0 run when play resumed and pulled away for a 50-41 victory.

Ryle (25-5), the No. 7-rated team in the state according to the Louisville Courier-Journal’s Litkenhous Ratings, advances to play Boone County, which is rated No. 5, in Thursday’s championship game at 7 p.m. Boone County (27-2) advanced with a 77-37 win over Cooper in Tuesday’s other semifinal.

Douthit, who hit her head hard during a scramble for the ball, was attended to for almost 10 minutes and as she was being helped to her feet, Oliverio walked toward a huddle of her players to say something.

“T is a senior and I just basically told them they didn’t want to end their career here, it’s been too good of a career and to remember who they were playing for and to play hard and we’ll be all right,” said Oliverio. “The other thing was just to pick up the defensive intensity.

“Our defense has kept us in it all year. That’s what we really focused on this year, because on those bad shooting nights when everybody’s tight the defense will keep you in it. They got energy and kind of felt like they didn’t want it to be over and played a little faster on defense and it sped (Conner) up, too.”

Senior teammate Jenna Crittendon said Douthit’s injury provided plenty of insipration.

“She’s a senior, there are four of us, and we’re definitely not going to (get knocked out) in districts,” said Crittendon, who finished with 15 points. “That gave us a boost of energy and when coach said, ‘Are you guys going to end your careers in districts?,’ we knew we weren’t going to let that happen.”

Senior guard Ashley Cheesman, who battled back from offseason knee surgery and only returned to play on Jan. 7, gave Ryle the lead for good at 35-34 on a three-pointer with 4:25 left to play. It was Cheesman’s only field goal of the game.

“She has done that in a bunch of games since she came back - hit big threes at important times,” said Oliverio. “When she hit that shot you could just feel the energy on our team pick up.”

Said Cheesman: “It allowed us to finally relax and get back to playing our game and that was pressuring them.”

Junior guard Dawn Johnson, who finished with a game-high 17 points, followed with a fastbreak layup and junior forward McKell Oliverio completed the 11-0 run with a short jumper from the left baseline to put Ryle on top 39-34 with 3:15 remaining. The Lady Raiders went 8 for 8 from the line in the final 1:26 to seal it.

Conner coach Aaron Stamm said Douthit’s injury probably took some momentum away from his team after it had rallied from as much as 21-13 third-quarter deficit to take a 34-27 lead with 6:50 left in the game.

“It probably did, because we were on a roll, but they’re a top 10 team in the state and we knew they were going to make a run and they made it and we had a hard time coming back from it,” said Stamm.

Stamm used an effective matchup zone for much of the game to limit Ryle offensively and Conner did a respectable job handling Ryle’s full court pressure to not only stay in the game, but take the lead. Senior guard Chelsea Castleberry helped fuel the comeback with six of her 12 points in the third quarter, including a basket with 2:01 left in the quarter that put Conner on top, 25-24.

Conner senior guard Dawn Peacock, the team’s leading scorer who was harassed all night by Johnson and Douthit, gave the Cougars their biggest lead at 34-27 with a three-pointer from the left corner.

“We felt if we could make the game slow and methodical and make them at least shoot over us we’d have a chance,” said Stamm. “Our kids gave everything they have and competed like they belonged.”

In Boone County’s win over Cooper, senior forward Sydney Moss led the way with 17 points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals and didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter. Moss, senior forward Zuri Hill and senior center Lydia Nash combined to score 35 points in the first half. Hill had all 15 of her points in the first half and Nash had eight of her 12 in the half.

 

1 2 3 4 - F

Ryle 12 7 8 23 - 50

Conner 10 3 16 12 - 41

Ryle (50): Crittendon 4 5 15, Oliverio 3 0 6, Dixon 0 0 0, Douthit 1 0 3, Johnson 6 3 17, Cheesman 1 3 6, Smith 0 3 3. Totals 15 14 50.

Conner (41): Peacock 4 1 10, Scott 2 1 7, Porter 4 4 12, Castleberry 5 2 12, Pluto 0 0 0. Totals 15 8 41.

Three-point goals: R-Crittendon 2, Johnson 2, Douthit, Cheesman. C-Scott, Peacock. Records: Ryle 25-5, Conner 20-10.

 

1 2 3 4 - F

Boone County 25 22 19 11 - 77

Cooper 11 5 16 5 – 37

Boone County (77): Moss 7 1 17, Hill 6 3 15, Nash 6 0 12, A. Switzer 3 3 12, Jones 0 0 0, E. Switzer 3 1 7, Murphy 2 0 5, Popp 0 2 2, Ford 1 0 2, Knotts 2 0 4, Kreimer 0 1 1. Totals 30 11 77.

Cooper (37): Thompson 2 0 4, Ross 3 0 8, Arnett 2 0 5, Brinneman 1 2 4, Pittman 2 1 7, Moore 2 0 6, Smith 0 1 1, Van Dusen 1 0 2. Totals 13 4 37.

Three-point goals: BC-A. Switzer 3, Moss 2, Murphy. C-Pittman 2, Ross 2, Moore 2, Arnett. Records: Boone County 27-2, Cooper 9-22.