STEVE GOLDMAN
THOMPSON – The Grand Valley girls struggled offensively all of Thursday night. And when Ledgemont started to finish its opportunities, it was able to pull away to a 56-27 home win.
Stephanie Ziegler led the way for Ledgemont, finishing just short of a triple-double. She scored 10 points – eight in the second half—while dishing out 11 assists and coming up with nine of the Redskins’ 21 steals.
“She’s our team leader,” Ledgemont coach Janet Nikses said. “She does it all, offensively and defensively.”
“She’s very quick,” GV coach Kim Triskett said. “She does a real nice job of staying low and getting her hands on the basketball — all the things that you would like to see from a defensive player who’s going to pressure the basketball. She does those things and does them very well, and they benefit from that immensely.”
Ziegler’s efforts were one of the reasons Ledgemont (8-7, 4-6 in the Northeaastern Athletic Conference) was able to force 35 turnovers, as the Redskins pressed often. The Mustangs (1-15, 0-10) didn’t fare well when shooting the ball either, as they converted only seven baskets.
After limiting GV to just three points and no field goals in the first quarter, the Redskins took a 25-13 lead at halftime. Kristen McClintock opened the second-half scoring with a 3-pointer for the Mustangs to slice the margin to nine at 25-16. But after the teams traded baskets, the Redskins went on a 23-2 tear, including runs of 11 and 12 points. That pushed it all the way to 50-20 with three minutes to play.
“The first half, we disrupted them with our press; we just weren’t making any baskets off of it,” Nikses said. “We stole the ball and made them turn it over; we just couldn’t put the ball in the hole.”
“Both teams were a little dry at the beginning in terms of scoring a bucket,” Triskett said. “We went a couple of minutes without scoring. And our first seven points were from the line. We had trouble finding the bucket this evening. And then on top of that, we turned the ball over too much.”
Amanda Sidley had 12 points for Ledgemont, leading all scorers, while Alicia Smychynsky and Sabrina Gannon pulled down eight rebounds apiece and Emily McGlone had four thefts.
McClintock, Bailey Holmes and Tayler Schinley all scored six points to lead Grand Valley, while Sarah Wilcom led everyone on the floor with nine boards.
The Redskins were thus able to sweep the season series from the Mustangs. They won, 57-45, at Grand Valley on Jan. 25.
“(Our players) did a nice job tonight of pressuring the ball,” Nikses said. “Even when we got back into our zone defense, they did a nice job of coming out on the ballhandlers, making turnovers and steals. They played with intensity tonight, and that’s what we were looking for.”
Goldman is a freelance writer from South Euclid.
