Held to just four points in the first half, the River Ridge girls’ basketball team suffered a 60-33 loss to league leading Highland last Thursday night in Six Rivers West conference action. The loss dropped Coach Michael DiPadova’s Timberwolves to a conference record of 2-4 and an overall mark of 7-6, while the Cardinals improved to 5-0 in league play and 9-2 overall.

Getting three points from sophomore Ava Nies and one from junior McKenzie Taylor, the River Ridge girls were limited to just four points in the first half, and trailed the Cardinals 32-4 at the intermission.

The two teams played nearly even in the second half though, as River Ridge outscored their hosts 29-28 in the final 18 minutes.

“We got off to another slow start, and against a good team playing at home, that’s hard to dig out of,” said coach DiPadova. “Ava Nies has become an excellent creator within our offense, and the girls continue to show tremendous grit despite being greatly outsized.”

Nies led River Ridge with 13 points, scoring 10 points in the second half on a pair of 3-pointers and a perfect 4-for-4 performance at the free throw line. Chipping in five points was sophomore Adaya Groom, followed by four each from Taylor and fellow junior Erin Adrian.

In non-conference action last Tuesday night, the Timberwolves were handed a 39-38 loss, despite outscoring visiting Southwestern 30-22 in the second half.

Points were hard to come by for the Timberwolves in the first half, as they played the first 15 minutes without scoring a field goal, and trailed 12-4 with 2:50 showing on the first-half clock.

Coach DiPadova’s squad closed out the opening half trailing 17-8, which proved to be too much of a deficit to overcome in the second half. With just over five minutest to play in the contest, a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Adayah Groom put the Timberwolves up 37-34, but the Wildcats outscored their host 5-1 in the closing minutest to steal the victory.

In the final five minutes, the Timberwolves were 0-for-3 from the field and 1-of-6 from the free throw line.

“This was a tough one,” said coach DiPadova. “We had another furious rally, but this one fell short. I was proud of the girls for battling back, and we had some opportunities late, but couldn’t quite shut the door when we needed to.”

River Ridge concluded the night making 13-of-39 (33 percent) shot attempts, including 3-of-13 (23 percent) from 3-point range. They were 9-of-27 (33 percent) from the charity stripe, and 16 committed total turnovers.

Ava Nies led River Ridge with 15 points and eight rebounds, while McKenzie Taylor finished with eight points and Adayah Groom and Erin Adrian with six points each.

Following this past Tuesday night’s road game at Belmont, the Lady T-Wolves will host Argyle/Pecatonica Friday night.