Gaston’s First Half Run Dooms Ragland

Sports

February 19, 2010

By Joel Paris News-Aegis

Ragland — Gaston held a 12-4 lead over Ragland with two minutes left in the first quarter and it never got any better for the Lady Purple Devils who were denied a trip to the northeast regional finals, 54-39, on Tuesday afternoon at Jacksonville State’s Pete Mathews Coliseum.

Ragland’s JJ Looney scored the first four points of the game but the Lady Purple Devils went cold quick. Gaston reeled off 21 straight points and led 21-4 with 7:46 left in the second quarter after a jumper by Erin Lowrey.

The Lady Bulldogs led 27-11 at the half and the injury to Ragland’s starting point guard, Madison Oliver, who also missed the area tournament and sub-regional with a stress facture in her tibia, loomed large.

“Every starter that I have has been here three times. This is two years in a row I’ve come in with a starter hurt though,” Ragland coach Rush Rutledge said afterwards. “When you take your point guard away, you take the quarterback off the team. That killed us. It hurt us depth-wise being from a 1A school and it hurt us as far as her being able to run anything I could throw at them.”

To make matters worse, the Lady Purple Devils shot 1-of-14 from deep and 8-of-15 from the free throw line.

“We’re usually 30-40 percent [from the three point line]. We missed some easy buckets,” Rutledge said. “Take nothing away from them, they can play. They’ve been here before and won it last year.”

The Gaston lead was cut to ten at the end of the third quarter, but the Lady Bulldogs came out hot in the fourth and led 37-21 just two minutes in.

The leading scorers for the Lady Bulldogs were Paige Gann with 14 points and seven rebounds, JJ Looney with ten points and five rebounds and Emily Church with five points and seven rebounds.

“We’re going to have to come over here and play four quarters and be able to play man and be able to run up and down the court. We didn’t do it tonight,” Rutledge said. “We didn’t make any shots, got frustrated and that’s what it boils down to.”

2/11

The Lady Purple Devils earned their trip to Jacksonville State with a 61-34 win over Holy Family last Thursday at home.

“I think we played the best team ball we’ve played all year as far as making good decisions passing wise, handling the basketball and taking good shots,” Rutledge said.