CUMBERLAND — Mountain Ridge led 9-8 after one quarter, then commanded the second quarter to pull away.
The Miners (6-5) outscored Bishop Walsh 23-8 in the frame to take control and win 61-34 on Thursday.
“We just weren’t quite ready to get moving,” Mountain Ridge head coach Donny Carter said. “Took a little while for our girls to get things set up. About halfway through the first quarter, they started to pick it up a little bit.”
The first quarter was a sloppy offensive frame on both sides.
The teams combined for five points off turnovers in the quarter despite each team forcing eight.
“We had a good week of practice, we were prepared,” Bishop Walsh head coach Shane Scott said. “It’s just a lack of experience. I have all freshmen. I can’t use that as an excuse, but it’ll put a toll on you after a while, because they don’t have that big sister out there that’s been through high school experience to be able to slow them down. They have to learn that on their own.”
A jumper by Lanie Odom evened the score at 13 with 6:45 left in the first half for the Spartans (7-5).
Odom scored 10 points with a block and a steal.
“Defense is always number one for me,” Scott said. “Defense is gonna take care of the offensive side, offense will never take care of the defensive side. I told them all week, there’s two things that’s gonna win us this basketball game. And that was rebounding and defense. First half, we were looking pretty good, then it’s just a lack of experience so we just faded away and fell apart a little bit.”
The Miners answered with a 19-3 run, holding Bishop Walsh off the scoreboard until Aerianna Jackson split a pair of free throws with 32 seconds left.
Jackson finished with 10 points, four steals and four assists.
Kealana Pua’auli scored six points and added three assists and a steal during the run for Mountain Ridge.
Pua’auli scored 13 points in the first half and finished with a game-high 19, adding eight assists and four steals.
Taylor Lamberson added seven points and two assists during the run and finished with 13 points, seven steals and four assists for the Miners.
“We started attacking the basket,” Carter said. “We were doing pretty well in rebounds, we just weren’t attacking the basket. Once we started doing that, it started opening up some stuff. We were able to get our bigs open up underneath on the blocks.”
Mountain Ridge outscored Bishop Walsh 13-2 in the third quarter and led 45-18.
Both teams scored 16 points in the fourth quarter.
The Spartans host Calvary (2-7) on Friday, followed by Turkeyfoot on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
When asked about the benefit of playing public schools for a young team, Scott said he wishes they could play more.
Bishop Walsh has four area public schools on the schedule with two games against Mountain Ridge and Northern and one each against Fort Hill and Paw Paw.
“I would play every public school around this area,” Scott said. “It’s one thing, I don’t duck competition. It’s just a shame some schools don’t wanna play us because they see the process I’m making since I’ve been here. But I would play every public school possible if I could because all it’s doing it building us and helping us.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter to them record-wise, it doesn’t really matter to us record-wise. The reason I would like to play public schools is they got walk-in talent. I have to go get talent. But at the same time, I don’t use that as an excuse because I prepare all my girls to compete. That’s what I’m good at, so as far as public schools, I’d play every team at least five times if I could.”
The Miners host No. 4 Allegany (9-1) on Monday at 7 p.m.
“Hopefully we play a little better than we did last time,” Carter said. “I think it’s gonna be a good game, they got a good team. We’re just gonna have to play all four quarters.”