The River Ridge boys and girls basketball teams welcomed eight teams to River Ridge High School this past Saturday, Dec. 27 for their annual winter tournament but it was the host Timberwolves who came away with both tournament championships.
Following a 42-34 win at Boscobel last Monday night, Dec. 22, the River Ridge girls opened up their home tournament this past Saturday with a 31-25 win over Seneca before defeating Iowa-Grant 31-10 in the championship game. The Panthers had advanced to the championship game thanks to a 64-50 win over Juda in the other first round game of the girls tournament.
Against the Bulldogs, the Timberwolves were led in scoring by Erin Adrian with 15 points. She also grabbed a team high 12 rebounds.
Following Adrian in the scoring column was Kristina Sletten (seven points), Ava Nies, Danice Hampton and McKenzie (five points each), Adayah Groom (three points) and Reese Moravits (two points).
Against the Royals, it was once again Adrian leading the team in scoring (11 points) and rebounding (six rebounds). Four other Timberwolves got into the scoring totals against Seneca and they were Sletten (seven points), Groom (five points) and Nies and Taylor with four points each.
The finale against Iowa-Grant saw Adrian (11 points) lead the Timberwolves in scoring for the third time in a week, while Nies (seven points), Groom and Hampton (four points each), Moravits (three points) and Sletten (two points) rounded out the River Ridge scoring as the T-Wolves improved to 7-3 so far this season.
On the boys side, River Ridge outlasted Boscobel 63-57 in the first game of the tournament thanks in large part to Brandon Davis’ 26 points, eight rebounds and five assists in the win. Brock Bunge (14 points) and Noah Copsey (13 points) also got into double figures scoring wise.
Wrapping up the T-Wolves scoring was the trio of Kameren Reynolds (five points), Reese Drew (three points) and Lane Copsey (two points).
Awaiting River Ridge in the final was Seneca and the Timberwolves once again used a near triple-double by Davis to earn a close, six-point victory.
Davis scored 20 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out six assists (to go along with two steals) to pace the Timberwolves offense.
Following Davis in the box score was Noah Copsey with 12 points, Bunge with 10 points, Drew with nine points, Reynolds with eight points (and seven rebounds), Lane Copsey with six points, and Mason Pecinovsky and Jackson White with three points each.
The River Ridge boys (4-3) got above .500 for the first time all-season thanks to the two tournament wins and have now won four games in a row since starting the season 0-3.
The River Ridge boys team is back at home this Friday night, Jan. 2 against Juda at 6:00 p.m. in a game that was rescheduled from Dec. 22 due to illness at Juda High School.
