FROSTBURG — Mountain Ridge led from the start on Tuesday and never looked back, cruising to a 59-40 victory over Hampshire.
“We played a lot better than we did the other night,” Mountain Ridge head coach Donny Carter said. “Rebounded, our intensity was great throughout the game. I think the loss to Allegany really got to them.”
The Miners (3-1) opened the game on an 8-2 run led by Kealana Pua’auli.
She opened the night with a floater and immediately followed with a steal that led to a pair of free throws.
“We worked hard on the boards, we got rebounds, we played great defense,” Carter said. “We came out man-to-man tonight and our girls stepped up.”
Pua’auli scored the game’s first six points and finished with 10 points, five assists and four steals.
The Trojans (1-2) had trouble holding onto the ball, committing 11 turnovers in the opening frame.
Most of them were self inflicted from either inaccurate passes or failing to cleanly receive passes.
“We had a horrible day at practice yesterday,” Hampshire head coach Jordan Richardson said. “And I kind of saw this coming, honestly. We had a fantastic day before Hedgesville and we caused 41 turnovers. We ran the floor and looked good and everything went great. We had a horrible effort at practice and it translated.”
Mountain Ridge turned the 11 turnovers into 10 of its 26 first-quarter points to lead 26-9 heading into the second.
Hampshire forced seven turnovers in the second quarter, but only turned them into five points.
The Miners scored 10 points in the second quarter while allowing four to take a 36-13 halftime lead.
“We’re inexperienced, we’re very young,” Richardson said. “They don’t know how to prepare quite yet. But I think today was a good day to show them how important preparation is. When you don’t prepare, you don’t mentally prepare in practice, that’s what it translates too.”
Taylor Lamberson scored eight of Mountain Ridge’s points in the quarter and finished as the game’s leading scorer with 13, adding three steals.
In the first half, the Miners shot 13 of 23 from the field (57%) compared to the Trojans who hit 5 of 22 (22%).
“Our girls were very intense tonight,” Carter said. “We went full-court, man-to-man tonight. Aggressive in the first half, that was a real game changer for us.”
Hampshire outscored Mountain Ridge 11-9 in the third quarter but trailed 45-24.
“We need a leader, we need a dominant leader,” Richardson said. “Right now it’s Natalie Sions. She’s doing all that she can to bring us along. But on the floor, when things aren’t going our way, we always say up 20, down 20, control the environment. We didn’t control the environment tonight, it’s hard to get up when things aren’t going your way, but that’s part of maturity, that’s part of growing up.”
Hampshire’s leading scorers were Bri Cosner and Kendyl Stewart with eight points each.
Stewart added four steals and three assists.
This year’s Trojans’ squad is one of the younger groups in the area.
Of the 11 varsity players, eight are underclassmen including five sophomores.
“I think it’ll be high and low” Richardson said of the season. “I think they’ll be times where we play better than we expect and they’ll be times we play worse than we expect. Depending on day of the week, time of the game, I think all those things are gonna matter. We’re gonna have to really analyze when we’re playing our best and why we’re playing our best and try to get that as consistent as possible.”
Hampshire hosts Martinsburg on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
Mountain Ridge heads to Garrett College for a pair of games next weekend.
The Miners face Millbrook on Friday at 6 p.m. and Trinity on Saturday at 1 p.m.
“It gives us a different perspective,” Carter said. “A lot of these teams, they all play together on travel ball all year long, you see the same kids all the time. It’s nice to get away from here, get a different perspective of what teams are bringing.”