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Lady Jays win ‘battle of the birds’

Monday, 12 January 2009

Photo: Ripley’s Mollie Malone goes up for a shot while Felicity’s Marisa Stutz attempts to block from behind.

By WADE LINVILLE
Sports editor, The News Democrat

The Ripley-Union-Lewis-Huntington Lady Jays continued to dominate the hardwood Monday night, venturing to Felicity-Franklin High School to claim an 83-41 victory over the Lady Cardinals.

“We haven’t played for 14 days, so I thought we would be a little rusty. But the girls came out and played fairly well,” said Ripley girls basketball coach Chris Coleman after Monday’s win.
The Lady Jays have shown steady improvement since a dazzling start to the 2008-2009 season, and watching his team soar to a 6-1 overall record has been a pleasant surprise for Coleman in his first year of coaching varsity girls basketball at Ripley.
“Honestly, I didn’t expect to be 6-1 at this time,” said Coleman. “I didn’t really know (at the beginning of the season) how good we would be or how good anybody else would be. We talk all of the time about the effort. I can put up with a few turnovers and mistakes like that, but if they don’t play hard we’re going to have problems. So far I’ve had no problems with that this season. They’ve went out and played hard every game.”
Backed by solid play all around, the Lady Jays jumped to a 37-11 lead in the first quarter and never looked back in Monday’s win at Felicity, expanding their lead to 55-22 in the second frame and 74-30 by the end of the third quarter.
Ripley’s junior guard Meagan Kirschner set the nets aflame in the first frame, firing in three shots from beyond the arc and a few two-point field goals. Kirschner kept up the pace to finish with 20 points, 12 of which came from three-pointers.
While Kirschner worked her magic from the outside, Ripley’s senior forward Brigett Spradling dominated in the paint. Spradling battled her way for for five field goals and connected on three-of-three attempts from the charity stripe for 13 first quarter points. She finished the night with 19 points.
Ripley junior Melissa Mitchell also got off to a blazing start, knocking down a three-pointer, four field goals from inside the arc and a free throw to rack up 12 points in the first quarter. Mitchell finished the night with 14 points.
Leading the way in scoring for the Lady Cardinals was Marisa Stutz, who finished the night with 15 points.
The Lady Jays are back home Jan. 12 to take on West Union.

Ripley 37 18 19 9 - 83
Felicity 11 11 8 11 - 41

RIPLEY (83) – Kirschner 7 2-2 20, Spradling 7 5-6 19, Mitchell 6 1-2 14, Plymesser 3 3-5 10, Copple 2 2-4 6, Malone 2 1-2 5, Carpenter 2 1-2 5, Jackson 2 0-0 4. TOTALS: 31 15-23 83.

FELICITY (41) – Stutz 6 3-7 15, Stevenson 4 0-2 12, Schultzius 3 1-2 7, Taulbee 1 1-2 3, Lucas 1 0-0 2, Mullins 1 0-1 2. TOTALS: 16 5-16 41.
3-POINTERS: RULH (Kirschner 4, Mitchell, Plymesser; FFHS (Stevenson 4).