Young Ridgeline girls basketball upends Mead on the road; Panthers boys end 4-game skid | GSL Basketball

The Ridgeline girls basketball team is extremely young, with seven freshmen on the roster. But that hasn’t kept them from hovering near the top of the Greater Spokane League standings all season.

The young Falcons, buoyed by senior all-league post Madi Crowley and junior point guard Grace Sheridan, achieved another milestone Tuesday night on the road.

Sheridan scored 23 points, Crowley added 21 and the visiting Falcons (13-4, 5-1) beat the Mead Panthers (13-3, 5-1) 62-45 in a GSL 4A/3A game on Tuesday.

The GSL routinely sends teams to the Saturday at state. Maybe folks have underestimated the Falcons some this year due to their young roster construction, but they won’t be able to after Tuesday’s win.

“We’ve been preparing for this game for a while and talking about it at practice after practice. And that was a team win,” Crowley said. “We came together, and our defense was a little slow at the beginning, just letting them get to the lane, but we ended up picking it up and got the win.”

Mead was led by Caroline Spink with 19 points and Ellie Thornton had 14. Senior Addison Wells Morrison, averaging 13.6 points per game, missed the game with a foot injury.

“Anytime we go against Mead, or anybody in our league, you’ve got to be ready to go,” Ridgeline coach Freddie Rehkow said. “And tonight, we knew that it was going to be a dogfight with or without (Wells Morrison). I didn’t even know she wasn’t playing until right before game time. But our pregame talk was whether she’s there or not, we’ve got to focus on us. And I thought, you know, we did that.”

It’s been a long learning experience for the Falcons freshmen.

“We really didn’t know what to expect at the beginning (of the season). And I think they didn’t know what to expect either,” Crowley said. “And I think we really came together as a team and started trusting each other, and just started playing basketball, and we were starting to win.”

“We ran our offenses a little better tonight,” Rehkow said. “We were able to get Madi involved early. I think Grace just played out of her mind. I mean, she controlled the floor really well. And then the youngsters, when they went in, they were a little shell shocked early. But then they settled down, and I thought they did a really nice job.”

Mead held a one-point lead after the first quarter, but Ridgeline – paced by Sheridan on the outside and Crowley on the inside – outscored Mead by seven in the second and led 36-30 at intermission.

Kate Taylor hit a 3 to start the third quarter and make it a nine-point game. The Falcons held Mead to nine points in the period and led 49-39 entering the fourth.

“It was a lot better the first half,” Crowley said of the third-quarter defense. “We picked it up and we started cutting off the cuts and just playing team defense.”

“The first half, I thought we were letting things get in there a little easy,” Rehkow said. “But second half, we tried to mix up the defenses a little bit and make them think.”

Boys

Mead 66, Ridgeline 62: Junior guard Karson Maze scored 18 of his 29 points in the second half and the Panthers (9-7, 2-4) beat the Falcons (6-11, 2-4) in the early game to snap a four-game skid.

Junior Hayden Koohns came off the bench for a career-high 13 points for Mead.

“It’s the nature of the GSL,” Mead coach Luke Jordan said of his team’s tough stretch. “From top to bottom, there’s a lot of parity where anyone can beat anyone.”

The Panthers led by two at halftime, and Maze scored 12 points in the third to put the Panthers up 49-46 entering the fourth. Maze then scored the first six points of the fourth to open a small cushion and Mead held on for the win.

“Karson, in my opinion, is the best player in the GSL and it’s not even close,” Jordan said. “You know, he’s such a tough matchup and such an emotional leader for us. … He is the catalyst behind everything that we do, and we work to get him opportunities. Tonight was a night where he was feeling it, and it helped carry us.”

Ridgeline senior Caden Andreas scored 21 points and needs 15 to move into 10th all-time in scoring in the GSL.