Ridge View moves on to state AAAAA finals with dominating win
Ridge View junior, Korie Corbett with his eye on the basket for another two!
By Neill Kirkpatrick
Special to the HSSR
Florence – You hear coaches preach all the time to their teams that defense travels and while you have to score more points than your opponent to win it is a team’s defense that can change a close a game into a rout in a matter of a couple of minutes.
That was the case Saturday afternoon at the Florence Civic in the second quarter of the Class AAAAA Division I lower state championship game as the defending AAAA state champion Ridge View Blazers went on a 23-0 run in the second quarter to take a 18-14 lead with five minutes left to a 41-14 halftime advantage to punch their ticket to next Friday’s state championship game with a 63-43 victory.
The Blazers 23-0 run was keyed by relentless defensive pressure on the ball, in the passing lanes and on double teams. They took the James Island Trojans completely out of their offense and no matter what they did the Blazers just shut it down.
“We pride ourselves on our defense and we were really able to dig in today,” said Ridge View head coach Josh Staley. “Our assistant coaches did a great job of scouting James Island and preparing the team for the game and then we went out an executed it.”
Coach continued, “the second quarter was about team effort. Every game we talk about team effort. It is not about one guy; it’s about all the guys doing their job and playing for each other.”
The Blazers (22-7) will be looking for their sixth state championship in the last eight years when they take on region rival Blythewood (23-5) , a 46-45 winner over defending AAAAA state champion Dorman. Ridge View won the two regular season matchups 64-52 and 77-68 on their way to the region 5AAAAA title.
“Blythewood is a very good basketball team and we are going to have to prepare for the toughest game we’ve played all year,” coach Staley said.
Saturday’s afternoon contest saw Ridge View come out hot as they scored the first four points of the game prompting James Island head coach Travis Smith to call a time out just 32 seconds into the game to settle his team down. However, the Blazers defensive pressure pushed the lead to 9-0 before the Trojans Parker Renault hit a three to stop the run.
That three seemed to settle the Trojans as they scored the next five points and the quarter ended with the Blazers on top 14-8.
The second quarter saw the Trojans close within four point at 18-14 after Josh Gladden scored inside the paint but then the Blazer assault started.
Talan Staley, Yale Davis, CJ Moore, Malachi Cooper, and Reggie Mack ramped up their defensive pressure. That pressure turned into instant offense as Davis scored 10 points driving past Trojans to the basket while Cooper and Staley nailed couple of threes.
Meanwhile, Moore was attacking the offensive boards and drawing fouls on the Trojans inside. He hit 5 of 7 free throws in the quarter.
Coach Smith called another Trojan timeout with 3:42 to go in the second quarter with the Blazers up 25-14 but it did not stop the Blazers run as they would score the final 16 points.
Davis would score 10 of his 15 in the quarter, Cooper would score 8 of his game high 21 points and Moore had 7 of his 9 points in the quarter. Cooper would also hit a game high three pointers.
The second half was a mere formality but the Trojan showed why they had made it to the lower state championship game as they outscored the Blazers 29-22.They were led by Renault with 17 points. Gavin Ward also scored 10 points and Gladden scored 8.
The Trojans finished the year at 19-9 with a region 8 AAAAA championship. It was the Trojans third consecutive region championship.
