GAME OF THE WEEK: Lady Rams overwhelm Uniontown, 55-20
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standard
Uniontown’s Kierra Rose (15) sets up to shoot with pressure from Ringgold’s Taylor Costa (4) as Lady Rams Johnna Mayer (11), Nya Adams (back) and Ashley Briscoe (5) look on in Section 3-AAAAA action Thursday at Uniontown Area High School. Briscoe recorded a triple-double with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 10 steals in Ringgold’s 55-20 victory.
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standard
Ringgold’s Taylor Mendicino (21) maneuvers past Uniontown’s Malaysia Ellis (5) during their Section 3-AAAAA game Thursday at Uniontown Area High School. Mendicino scored eight points in the Lady Rams’ 55-20 win.
John F. Brothers
Uniontown’s Mya Murray (3) puts up a shot against Ringgold in a game last season at Uniontown Area High School.
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standard
Uniontown’s Malaysia Ellis (5) goes under Ringgold’s Johnna Mocniak (32) to pass the ball during a Section 3-AAAAA basketball game Thursday at Uniontown Area High School.
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standard
Ringgold’s Taylor Mendicino (21) shoots the ball on a breakaway Thursday during Section 3-AAAAA play at Uniontown Area High School.
Ringgold's Natalie Adams (10) is chased across the court by Uniontown's Malaysia Ellis (5) during Thursday's Section 3-AAAAA game at Uniontown Area High School.
Ringgold combined a good shooting night with an effective full-court press and a triple-double from Ashley Briscoe on Thursday night.
That recipe cooked up a surprisingly easy victory for the Lady Rams at Uniontown in a key Section 3-AAAAA girls basketball match-up.
Ringgold broke a 2-2 tie by scoring the last 10 points in the first period and never looked back in rolling to a 55-20 win.
“We haven’t come out strong and had a good road win like this all season so this is great for the team, especially going into our game Tuesday against Trinity,” Lady Rams coach Erika McCarthy said. “We really needed this one.”
The win moved Ringgold (6-6, 3-2) a game ahead of the Lady Raiders (3-8, 2-3) into sole possession of fourth place in the section. Trinity (21-1, 5-0) is in first place.
Briscoe poured in a game-high 21 points to go along with 10 rebounds and 10 steals in a dominant performance. Although she was the only Lady Ram in double figures, she got plenty of all-around help from her teammates.
“This was a big game for us for the playoffs,” Briscoe said. “Everybody was on. We were just playing really good.
“Everybody expects me to get rebounds and score but tonight we all came together as a team and we all played really well. I was pretty happy.”
Briscoe scored the game’s first basket on a steal and lay-up. Malaysia Ellis countered with a jump shot for Uniontown but the Lady Raiders wouldn’t score again until Kelsea Rose hit a spinning lay-up after a steal with 5:03 left in the second period.
Ringgold trapped and flustered Uniontown into an avalanche of turnovers, and when the Lady Raiders did get up court they couldn’t convert shots.
Briscoe hit a fastbreak lay-up to put Ringgold in front to stay, 4-2. Taylor Mendicino hit a baseline jumper for the Lady Rams and Briscoe stole the inbounds pass and scored while being fouled. She converted the free to make it 9-2. A basket my Johnna Mayer and free throw by Nya Adams made it 12-2 after one.
Ringgold kept the pressure on in the second frame as buckets by Johnna Mocniak and Mendicino were followed by three points from Taylor Costa that made it 19-2 before Rose’s basket snapped the run.
“You have to give a lot of credit to Ringgold,” Uniontown coach Jason Winfrey said. “They came out, they did some things on us. It’s 4-2, they go on a run, they get into their press. The type of basketball team we are, we got a little rattled when adversity hit us and we didn’t do a very good job of handling their press tonight.”
The Lady Rams’ press isn’t good by accident.
“That’s something we work on every day in practice,” McCarthy said. “I know my girls are athletic and they have the intensity when they want to. They can come out and do that all the time in the press.
“I think our press and our fastbreak really generated our offense which made our shooting look a lot better, too.”
Winfrey called three timeouts in the first half to try to settle his troops down, but Ringgold was relentless and cruised into intermission with a 15-3 run for a commanding 34-7 lead. Briscoe scored six points in the spurt which also included a 3-pointer by Natalie Adams and four points from Mendicino, who finished with eight points.
Taylor Costa added seven points for the Lady Rams, and Mayer hit a 3-pointer in scoring five points.
Ringgold out-scored the Lady Raiders 21-13 in the second half.
Mya Murray and Kierra Rose led Uniontown with six points apiece.
“Whenever you’re making bank threes, it’s your night,” Winfrey said, referring to one trey the Lady Rams made. “I told the girls in the locker room, keep your heads up, you’ve got to put the blame on me. I’ve got to do a better job of coaching them and a better job of teaching them.”
Uniontown has struggled to score points most of the season and Thursday night was no different.
“We basically can’t find the type of rhythm on offense that you need to have to compete,” Winfrey said. “We’re going to put this loss in the loss column and come back tomorrow and continue to work and see if we can fight through it.”