Riverside’s girls basketball team picked up a big league win Monday with a 59-38 victory over visiting Elgin during Northwest Central Conference action.
The Pirates are now 8-9 overall and move to 5-1 in the NWCC standings.
“I’m so proud of how hard the girls played tonight for all four quarters,” said RHS head coach Bryce Hodge. “We also only had eight turnovers, which has been an issue for us this year. We took care of the basketball, played with great effort and made shots when we needed it most.
“This is the most complete game we’ve played all season and hopefully it’s a sign of things to come as our season winds down here in these last few weeks. I’m extremely grateful for our student section that gave us a great home court advantage tonight.”
Riverside escaped the first quarter with a 15-11 lead. Elgin clipped Riverside in the second quarter 14-13, but the Pirates still carried a 28-25 advantage into halftime.
The second half saw Riverside distance itself from Elgin. That started with a 10-5 run in the third quarter to create a 38-30 cushion. The Pirates took pulled away for good in the fourth quarter with a 21-8 run.
“It took a total team effort tonight,” said Hodge. “Lauryn (Sanford) handled most of the work load defending Elgin’s Bekah Muselin and she did a great job. We’ve been in a rut lately and we’ve talked about how most of it is due to a lack of effort on defense for an entire game. The other main reason was because we haven’t taken good care of the basketball.”
Riverside’s offense was firing on all cylinders with four players reaching double digits. Lauryn Sanford powered the Pirates with 19 points, five rebounds and five assists, Kirstin Schlumbohm had 13 points, five rebounds and three steals, Olivia Perk had 12 points and 12 rebounds, while Amber Waters had 10 points, seven rebounds and five steals.
In junior varsity action, Elgin rolled past Riverside 22-9. Kaelan Copas led the Pirates with four points.
Riverside hosts Urbana on Thursday for a non-league game.