Staying in a routine has been a difficult challenge for prep sports teams during the coronavirus pandemic. The Benjamin Logan and Riverside girls basketball teams have been directly impacted, with both having to recently quarantine.
The Pirates and Raiders showed the lingering rust of their layoffs during the first half of Monday’s game before Riverside found its footing in the second half to pull away for a 50-34 victory in a non-league contest.
“The girls have handled all of this tremendously well,” said Riverside head coach Rod Yoder, who saw his team improve to 4-1. “Every day is a question mark. It’s frustrating not being able to get into a flow, but our girls have done a great job of adjusting to all of the uncertainty.”
After trailing 21-19 at halftime, the Pirates upped their intensity on both ends of the court in the second half to outscore the host Raiders 31-13 over the final two quarters.
“There were two things we focused on during halftime,” said Yoder. “We didn’t get back on defense in the first half and we played with our hands too much on defense. Also, we weren’t taking care of the basketball very well in the first half. We did those things much better in the second half. That was probably the best half of basketball we’ve played.”
The Raiders, who had not played since Jan. 5 and were without leading scorer Lynzee Cronkleton, could not get in sync.
“That was probably our worst defensive performance since my first week here,” said second-year Ben Logan coach Andy Schwochow. “We were not aggressive defensively and we didn’t rebound very well.
“It’s easy to sit back and say we struggled because we didn’t have Lynzee, but we have more than enough experience to overcome that. The most disappointing thing was our defense. We pride ourselves on our defense and it just wasn’t there tonight.”
Riverside used a balanced scoring attack to get the win. Lauryn Sanford led the way with 15 points, Jade Copas had 11 points, Kirstin Schlumbohm recorded 10 points and Olivia Perk added eight points.
“Everybody contributed,” said Yoder. “It just wasn’t balanced scoring, it was rebounding and defense, too.”
Kennedy Parker and Kerry Copenhaver each had seven points for the Raiders (2-2).
Elliott Bailey, Kayla Reeves and Casey Cook added five points apiece.
In the junior varsity game, Ben Logan won 41-13.
Ben Logan is back in action Wednesday at home against Indian Lake, while the Pirates host Perry on Thursday.
RIVERSIDE 50
BEN LOGAN 34
RIVERSIDE (4-1)
Knight 2 0-0 4; Manahan 1 0-0 2; Schlumbohm 4 0-0 10; Sanford 4 7-8 15; Perk 3 2-4 8; Copas 3 5-6 11. Totals: 17 14-18 50.
Ben Logan (2-2)
Parker 3 0-0 7; Kennedy 0 0-2 0; Bailey 1 2-6 5; Reeves 2 1-2 5; Copenhaver 3 1-2 7; Peterson 1 0-0 2; Cook 2 0-0 5; Horney 1 1-4 3. Totals: 13 5-16 34.
Pirates. 8 11 18 13 — 50
Raiders. 11 10 7 6 — 34
Three pointers: Riverside 2 (Schlumbohm 2); Ben Logan 3 (Parker, Bailey, Cook).
Team fouls: Riverside 11; Ben Logan 10.