PAINESVILLE TOWNSHIP —
It was very early in the season when the Riverside girls established themselves as a force with which to be reckoned in the Premier Athletic Conference. Still, they hadn’t beaten one of the other league squads that were generally considered to be contenders. Until Saturday afternoon.
The Beavers used strong defense and rebounding to upend visiting Chardon, 42-37 at the Riverside Community Fieldhouse.
With four PAC losses, the Beavers (8-6 overall) no longer have a realistic shot at the league title, nor does North. Now in defeating the Hilltoppers (11-3, 6-3), they have made things much tougher for them.
Geneva leads the way at 7-1 via Saturday’s victory over Madison, which stands at 6-2. Chardon, which has just three league games remaining, could have remained one loss behind the lead with a win.
“Jefferson was a great road win (48-42 on Saturday) that we had to grind out,” Riverside coach Brindi Kandel, whose team lost at Chardon 52-43 on Dec. 8, said. “Today beating Chardon here is sweet. Chardon is extremely good. They’re well-coached. They’re a tough team to play.
“Coming out and executing the plan that we put in place — that was all the girls. And they did exactly what I asked them. So from a standpoint of how big it was, it was huge because they implemented some things we’ve been working on in practice, and that’s what we’ve been waiting to see.”
Katie Klingman led Riverside with 12 points and 17 rebounds. Ten of her points came in the first period, in which the Beavers ran off the final 10 points for a 14-3 lead. Her work on the boards helped her team to a 38-21 advantage there, and she also helped to plug up the middle on defense.
“Katie had a huge night,” Kandel said. “Katie was all over the boards — defense and offense — and she did a great job on the post players inside.
“She got into a little bit of foul trouble (she picked up her fourth with 5:32 remaining), but overall I thought she did a nice job of being aggressive without fouling.”
Riverside went 18-of-37 (48.6 percent) from the floor, but turned the ball over 20 times to just nine for Chardon. The Hilltoppers , who gave the ball up just twice after the break, shot 14-of-46 (30.4 percent).
Chardon fought back from the early deficit, twice getting within two points. When Lindsey Lyons (10 points) opened the fourth quarter by scoring on a drive, it was 30-28.
However, Megan Carabotta hit a 3-pointer to make it 33-28 moments later.
After Kortlyn Carr (5 assists) grabbed an offensive rebound and found Lexi Parsons (7 of her 11 points in the fourth quarter) for a layup then Megan Tamburiello followed in a miss, it was 37-29 inside the 4:30 mark. A three-point play by Taylor Wawroski (11 points, 9 boards) cut it to 37-32, but a pullup jumper by Parsons nudged it to 39-32 with 3:29 left.
The teams then went scoreless until Parsons converted a one-and-one with 32.2 seconds left on the clock.
Chardon hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to make it a five-point differential.
Abbey Militello scored all 10 of her points in the first half for Riverside.
“We try very hard to teach (that) basketball is a game of runs,” Kandel said. “We never want to get too high and never get too low. We want to try to just play trough the run that they’re going to make and try to create our own run out of that. And I thought our girls did a nice job of withstanding.”
Riverside is still without post player Katie Lyden (knee).
Goldman is a freelance writer from South Euclid.
Sports
Riverside upends Chardon
Beavers shake up race for PAC title with W
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Geneva, Edgewood win in J-Town
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Scholastic Statistics:
BASEBALL
DIVISION I
SECTIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Fitch 10, Lakeside 1
at Fitch -
Scholastic Schedule:
SATURDAY, MAY 18
Baseball
n No events scheduled -
Top to bottom
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Falcons fly to sectional title
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Area High School Baseball Statistical Leaders:
INDIVIDUAL BATTING (minimum 45 at-bats)
PLAYER SCHOOL AVG OB% SLG% AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB
Chase Thurber PV .548 .642 .790 62 24 34 10 1 1 25 13
Tim Cross PV .492 .528 .667 63 24 31 9 1 0 25 12
Louie Wisnyai Edgewood .492 .559 .763 59 17 29 8 1 2 26 8
Tony Magda Edgewood .483 .552 .603 58 14 28 5 1 0 19 6
Joey Piscsalko Jefferson .471 .548 .571 70 23 33 7 0 0 19 14
Scott Davidson Jefferson .464 .519 .623 69 20 32 7 2 0 10 8 -
Lakeside rolls past East
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Geneva, Edgewood win in J-Town
