A poor night shooting the ball was too much for the Grove Lady Ridgerunners to overcome as their season ended with a 52-37 loss to the Edison Lady Eagles in the first round of the Class 5A East area playoffs Thursday at Memorial High School.
The Lady Ridgerunners (11-11) played the ninth-ranked Lady Eagles nearly even in most phases of the game, but only shot 30 percent from the field, including 15 percent (4-of-26) from behind the three-point line.
“We just couldn’t get anything to fall,” Grove head coach Richard Bassett said. “Nobody ever got in a rhythm. It’s hard when you can’t score and they’re as fast and athletic as they are.”
The Lady Ridgerunners outrebounded Edison 36-35 and committed just four more turnovers (17-13), allowing them to stay close through the first quarter. Grove trailed 9-7 with 3:04 left in the opening period, but Edison (13-8), with six points from Jonica Hurd, took a 15-11 lead by the end of the period.
But in the second period Grove went cold, going on a nine-minute scoreless drought that didn’t end until Emilee Iverson hit a three-pointer with just under a minute left in the first half. By then, the Lady Eagles had stretched their lead to double digits.
“We’ve had those quarters here lately,” Bassett said. “We didn’t score in the second quarter at Miami, and tonight we only score three and they stretched it out to 11.”
Grove would briefly cut the lead to seven when Paige Miller made a pair of putbacks early in the third quarter before Edison closed the quarter with a 13-4 run to stretch the lead to 17.
“I’m really proud of the girls,” Bassett said. “They played extremely hard. We did all those things [turnovers, rebounding, defense] well enough to win, but obviously you have to put the ball in the basket.”
Miller led the Lady Ridgerunners with 12 points and 13 rebounds, getting 8 points and 11 boards in the second half.
“She has grown and only gotten better,” Bassett said of the sophomore. “I’m looking forward to her next two years. She’s only going to get better.”
Iverson, the Lady Ridgerunners’ only senior, finished her career at Grove with 10 points and 3 steals.
Mariah Green led Edison with 15 points. The Lady Eagles got 12 points from Shala Dobbins with Hurd finishing with 10. The Lady Eagles defeated Tulsa Memorial on Saturday to claim the regional title and move into Thursday's area championship game.
Memorial 49, Grove 32
The Grove Ridgerunners held a surprising 20-19 during the third quarter of their 5A East regional semifinal against Tulsa Memorial on Friday, but the second-ranked defending state champions answered with a 13-0 run to end Grove's season with the 49-32 win.
Ty Phillips led the Ridgerunners (6-16) with 13 points, while fellow senior Jake Spychalski added 11.
