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River Ridge girls basketball has hung their hats on one facet of the game forever.
Defense.
And this year is no different for the Division 5 ranked Timberwolves.
But Highland's girls team made playing the D a little more challenging than the Timberwolves are use to and trimmed their lead to one point in the third quarter. The Wolves pulled away--for awhile--but the Cardinals came back again and again.
"We got it to five and then again to four in the fourth quarter," coach Josh Tarrell said. "But then we had to foul."
That worked more in River Ridge's favor than it did for Highland's as the Timberwolves made four of six free throws in the closing minutes and claimed a 50-39 win.
"I am very pleased with how the girls played," Tarrell said. "They fought their tails off against an undefeated and ranked team and came back again and again. We had some little things offensively that ended up to be bigger things when you put them all together but they can be cleaned up. Defensively we were solid."
The Timberwolves made it hard to get the ball inside but junior post Brenna Bomkamp made the most of her touches with 13 points to lead Highland. She also hauled in 11 rebounds for a double double.
"She was strong in the post but we had problems getting her the ball," Tarrell said. "They play a tough man to man and fall back into the post on their help defense."
Bomkamp had eight of Highland's 10 second quarter points to keep her team in the game. It was 21-17 at the half.
Sabrina White had 13 points for the Timberwolvles. Amber Patterson added 12 while Meagan Herrick and Bridgette Myers both had 10.
"They are stronger physically than we are and tied us up on a lot of loose balls," Tarrell said. "But no one backed down."
"The good thing is the little things that went wrong offensively can be cleaned up," Tarrell said. "We are moving in the right direction."
SCORE BY QUARTERS
RR 11 10 15 14 50
H 7 10 8 14 39
BOX SCORE
RIVER RIDGE  50: (fg-ft-tp) Myers 3-4-10, Zinkle 0-1-1, White 6-1-13, Allen 1-0-2, Herrick 4-2-10, Patterson 6-0-12, Plondke 1-0-2 Totals 21-8/19-50 Fouls-13
HIGHLAND 39: Drury 1-2-4, Wienkes 2-2-6, Laufenberg 1-0-2, Kosharek 3-0-9, Bomkamp 6-1-13, Yager 2-1-5 Totals 15-6/14-39 Fouls-16
3 point goals:
H-Kosharek 3