GROVE – They may not have shot the ball at the same outrageous clip of their past two games, but the Grove Lady Ridgerunners had more than enough in Monday night’s win over Pryor, dominating the boards and getting balanced scoring from 10 different players in a 59-28 blowout on Senior Night.
“We played well,” Grove head coach Richard Bassett said. “To shoot it like we did the other night [against Jay] that was a once-in-a-lifetime deal. We had too many turnovers though.”
The Lady Ridgerunners (16-7) turned the ball over 13 times in the first half, letting the Lady Tigers hang around. After taking a 19-3 lead at the end of the first quarter, Grove could not expand on it, leading only 31-16 at the half.
“We just threw it away and did silly stuff,” Bassett said. “We were also trying some stuff to use against McAlester [in the playoff opener]. We focused and cleaned it up. In the third quarter we were really efficient.”
The third quarter put the game away, as the Lady Ridgerunners outscored Pryor 20-4 and took a 51-20 lead before turning things over to their bench for the final period.
But what was consistent throughout the game was the Grove defense, which forced 15 Pryor turnovers in the first quarter alone and 31 for the game. The Lady Ridgerunners allowed a lone three-pointer by Kelsie Kerns for the Lady Tigers’ only points in the first quarter, extending their lead to as much as 21-3 early in the second. Six Lady Ridgerunners got in the scoring column in the first quarter, with Mason Jeffries and Taylor Dodson leading the way with five and four points, respectively.
Things grew stagnant offensively in the second quarter, as turnovers mounted for both sides. The Lady Tigers made a 7-0 run to get as close at 21-10 with just under six minutes left in the first half as Grove committed seven turnovers in the second quarter.
But in the third quarter Grove cleaned up the turnovers and the shots began to fall. Despite only shooting 31 percent from beyond the arc for the game, the Lady Ridgerunners knocked down three in the third quarter, with Emilee Iverson hitting on back-to-back shots to spark a 17-1 run.
Grove also got a boost from the bench in Lily Jeffries, who scored six of her 10 points during a three minutes stretch of the third quarter as Grove finished the regular season with their third straight win.
Iverson led Grove with 11 points while Mason Jeffries finished with 9 points and 6 rebounds. Kerns led Pryor (2-19) with 8 points.
Grove outrebounded Pryor 43-26 for the game, led by 8 boards from senior Taylor Dodson, who added 5points as well. Senior point guard Emily Cook had 7 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists in her final home game.
The Lady Ridgerunners will open the playoffs on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. against McAlester at East Central High School in Tulsa.
