Girls basketball falls to North Ridgeville in a defensive struggle, 38-33

When you have a matchup of two teams that hang their hats on their defense, the result isn’t always pretty.

Final score: North Ridgeville 38, Avon 33.

After a strong start that saw them take a 9-4 lead Wednesday, the visiting Eagles went very cold. They scored just three points in the next 11 minutes, 44 seconds and watched as the host Rangers took a 17-12 halftime lead. The extended run continued into the third quarter, as North Ridgeville got up by as many as 10, 26-16, with 3:07 left in the period. Completing a 22-7 run since Avon’s 9-4 lead.

The bottom line is that the Eagles just couldn’t get the ball to go into the basket.

“A lot of credit, obviously, goes to Ridgeville,” said coach Adam Castrilla. “They had a good game plan. They were blitzing all of our ball screens and handoffs and things like that.”

As has been the case for much of the season, Avon didn’t give in and put on a run of its own in the fourth quarter. The period opened with the hosts holding a 29-21 lead, but the Eagles began attacking the basket and drawing fouls, sandwiching six made free throws around a midrange jumper by Alaina Pagan, who led all players with 15 points, 10 in the second half.

“I thought we adjusted, and we fought back,” Castrilla said. “I’ll never question the fight in this group. It’s frustrating because I know we’re close, but I’m proud of the kids for how they fought.”

After a few misfires that could have tied the game, Avon finally knotted the score at 31 with 1:53 to play when Molley Kennedy grabbed a long defensive rebound and used her speed to beat everyone down the floor to score on a fastbreak layup.

However, it only took North Ridgeville 12 seconds to get the lead back, as sophomore Adri Spyres, who led the Rangers with 10 points off the bench, swished an open 3-pointer from the left side with 1:41 remaining.

“We just didn’t get matched up,” Castrilla said. “I always say to the kids, if you’re standing around on the court and you’re not next to somebody, you probably are missing somebody. Again, credit to them for making the shot.”

The Eagles were outscored, 7-2, for the rest of the game, falling to 6-1 overall and 5-5 in Southwestern Conference action. The Rangers are now 12-4 and 5-4, including a 54-46 loss at Avon on Dec. 13.

“We’re not going to allow this to be a step back,” Castrilla said. “That’s Ridgevile’s 12th win of the year, so it’s not as if they’re not a good team. They’re a really good team. We knew that going in and playing them on their home court. I think they wanted to get us back from earlier in the year.”

Next up for Avon, which also got seven points from Audrey Lammers but had nobody else score more than three, is a home game with Olmsted Falls on Saturday.