by The North Ridgeville Rangers came back from a 11-point first quarter deficit and then another 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter, to defeat the Avon Eagles 48-46 in a thrilling game tonight at The Nest. It was a wild 12-0 stretch late into the fourth quarter for the Rangers that saw them take their first lead in quarters, before a Reyna Balderas bucket with less then 20 seconds left sealed the nail biting come from behind win.
I spoke with North Ridgeville head coach Amy Esser about her team’s ability to come back from two large deficits tonight, “for three quarters we didn’t take care of the basketball, play well, or follow the game plan. In the fourth quarter, we reminded them to play with heart, we challenged them and they gutted it out and got the job done,” said Esser.
Even with Grace Kingery being her clutch self-tonight, and hitting monster shots all game, the Rangers needed others to step and got that in the fourth. Coach Esser touched that on well, “we need them to hit shots and shoot the ball because it gives Grace an outlet. Those kids stepping up had ice water in their veins tonight to take and hit those key shots.”
One of those players to make lockdown defensive play s and also one big shot after another down the stretch, was Brooke Lime. We spoke to her about it afterwards about what was going through her mind in the fourth, “All my teammates brought the energy up and it gave us the energy to get back on defense and make a play. Defense is important and we all have to communicate and come together. We need to keep the energy up and have our defensive effort turn into offense.”
Grace Kingery led the Rangers with 20 points, including two huge three pointers in the fourth during the wild rally. But it wasn’t just Grace tonight, as her supporting cast came out and showed out with tremendous efforts. Brooke Lime tallied 7 along with Reyna Balderas who had 8. Macie Miller had 5 clutch points while Maddie Eldrige joined the party with 5. CC Bouman and Kailey Shulz finished the scoring with 3 and 2 each. All seemed to come on the most important times.
The Eagles were led by their sensational freshman Alaina Pagan with 13. I may sound like a broken record at this point, but she is a joy to watch and one of the best freshman talents I’ve ever seen. Remember the name! Abby Owens also had a nice night for the Eagles with 11 points as Molly Drenik poured in 7 while Emma Owens and Amelia Holbrook had 5 each. Finishing the scoring for Avon was Makenzie Ptacek with 2 and Madigan O’Leary with 3.
After a Grace Kingery bucket got things started for the Rangers, the Avon Eagles went off for 13 straight points, capitalizing on one turnover after another from North Ridgeville. The Eagles used three balls by Abby Owens who had 2 of them, and one from Emma Owens from deep along with 4 points from Alaina Pagan to build the lead. The Rangers did what they could to cut into it by scoring the final 6 in the quarter to make it closer, 13-8 after one with a bucket from Macie Miller to stop the Eagle run, and then foul shots from CC Bouman and Kailey Shulz with a bucket from Kingery as well.
The second quarter was a wild one as following a Kingery basket, it was a Maddie Eldrige three ball to tie it at 13, followed by a Bouman put back to give the Rangers the lead, as they completed their own 13-0 run over two quarters time. Avon struck back with big shots from Molly Drenik and Madigan O’Leary as the lead bounced back and forth. The game went to halftime with the Eagles still up, 25-24. It is to be noted they Reyna Balderas had two huge three pointers for North Ridgeville in that half.
Avon began to pull away a bit in the third quarter as they outscored the Rangers by four in the frame and took a 38-33 lead into the fourth. The Eagles then came out strong to start the fourth quarter and began to extend their lead when a put back by Drenik, a drive by Pagan and a made basket by Ptacek handed Avon a 44-33 lead with less then 5 minutes to go in the fourth quarter. It looked bleak for North Ridgeville until a Macie Miller three ball sparked a 12 – 0 rally over the next 3 minutes that gave North Ridgeville a 45-44 lead with 90 seconds to play.
The 12 straight points came on the Miller three ball, and then back to back three balls from Kingery, followed by a layup and one from Brooke Lime, with a foul shot that put them ahead 45-44 out of nowhere. It was a three minute blitzkrieg of points combined with lockdown defense from North Ridgeville to shock the Eagles.
From there, Molly Drenik of Avon split a pair of foul shots to tie it at 45. The Rangers had the ball and ran their offense looking for the best option to score, after patience, it came at the hands of Reyna Balderas who ended up wide open near the hoop to make the winning bucket. From there the teams split free throws and that was all she wrote as the Rangers held on 48-46.
