Nothing in baseball can match an ace pitcher, not even the weight of history.
FORT WAYNE – The Class 4A No. 9 Snider girls basketball team rallied for a 54-48 conference win over 2A No. 2 Bishop Luers at home Friday.
“A big credit (goes) to our girls to not give up,” Snider coach Ryan Gould said. “There were a lot of times where we looked dead and out of it. I really appreciate their effort tonight.”
Snider outscored Luers 16-3 in the fourth quarter and 22-6 after the Knights’ 42-32 advantage midway through the third.
Luers led 31-21 at halftime, but Snider won the second half 33-17.
“We challenged them at halftime,” Gould said. “Our guards just played great defense in the second half.”
Freshman Deja Wimby led the Panthers (17-3, 6-1 SAC) with 19 points.
The difference in the second half was Snider’s defensive pressure.
Without senior point guard Jamesha Ridley, the Knights had 27 turnovers and nine in the fourth quarter. By contrast, Snider had only two turnovers in the second half after 10 in the first two quarters.
“(The Panthers) are just so athletic and get all over you,” Luers coach Denny Renier said. “They just cranked up the pressure in the third quarter. Our guards are pretty good, but it’s so hard against them. They just give you no breathing room. We practiced it all week, but you can’t simulate it.”
Despite having an advantage inside, Luers (13-5, 4-3) wasn’t able to parlay that into points in the second half because of the miscues.
“Our hope going into the game was that we could pressure their guards enough that they wouldn’t get good looks in the post,” Gould said.
Miracle Woods finished with 18 points and Brooke Ridley had 14.
The pair combined for nine points in the second half after Woods (13) and Ridley (eight) accounted for Luers’ first 21 points of the game.
Jamesha Ridley, a transfer from South Side this year, was not available because of a non-basketball-related disciplinary reason. Her status on the team in the postseason was unknown, Renier said.
