Ringgold looks inside, finds win
CHARLEROI – Because the WPIAL and local small college basketball schedules rarely overlap, Tara Schmidt of Eighty Four usually can attend games involving her daughters, Marlena, a senior at Ringgold High School, and Emily, a senior at Chatham University.
One of the few schedule conflicts was Saturday, when Ringgold played Greensburg Salem in a WPIAL Class AAA preliminary round playoff game while Chatham hosted Geneva in the Cougars’ final home game of the season.
Tara Schmidt attended Emily’s game because it was Senior Day at Chatham.
Marlena Schmidt, however, had quite the story to tell her mother about the game she missed.
Ringgold played its best offensive game of the season and routed Greensburg Salem, 77-57, at Charleroi High School. Schmidt, a 6-6 center and West Virginia recruit, was a major reason why as she scored a team-high 28 points – 23 in the first half – and almost had a rare triple-double.
Schmidt, who was more of a force on the defensive end of the court than on offense this season, finished with 15 rebounds and eight blocked shots despite sitting out four minutes of the second half with four fouls.
“That was the most complete game we’ve played,” Schmidt admitted.
Ringgold (13-10) lost to Greensburg Salem, 47-46, on a netural court at California University back in December. This time, the Rams went to Schmidt early and often against the smaller Greensburg Salem defenders. Schmidt took control of the game by scoring off lob passes, low-post moves and offensive rebounds as Ringgold led 18-11 after one quarter and 38-23 at halftime.
Schmidt scored 12 of Ringgold’s 18 first-quarter points and had 11 more in the second quarter before going to the bench after drawing her third foul.
“At practice Thursday, I told Marlena that West Virginia is giving her a tremendous opportunity and she will have experiences that other kids can only be jealous of, but basketball becomes a job in college,” Ringgold coach Laura Grimm said. “I told her … she should cherish the memories and enjoy the playoffs.
“Marlena had the same looks today that she had all season, but today she had more and-ones than she had the entire season combined.”
What made Ringgold’s win even more impressive was the Rams played without junior point guard Bailey Cooper, who might be their most important player. Cooper did not play because of a concussion.
“We thought she would be cleared to play,” Grimm said. “We fully expect to have her back Wednesday.”
Ringgold needs Cooper because the Rams will play top-seeded Blackhawk (19-3) Wednesday at North Allegheny. Tip-off is 6:30 p.m. Blackhawk has the Class AAA’s leading scorer, Chassidy Omogrosso (26.7 ppg).
“I think the team saw how much the playoffs mean to Bailey. These kids ached for her,” Grimm said. “They didn’t want the season to end without Bailey getting a chance to experience the playoffs.”
Greensburg Salem’s Claire Oberdorf, who entered the game as the second-leading scorer in Class AAA at 26.6 ppg, did her best to keep the Lions within striking distance by scoring a game-high 32 points. The focus of Ringgold’s gimmick defenses, Oberdorf was 11-for-11 at the free-throw line.
Greensburg Salem (13-10), however couldn’t stop Ringgold’s inside game. The Lions were able to slow Schmidt in the second half by collapsing its 2-3 zone on the Rams’ center, but all that did was open up freshman power forward Ashley Briscoe, who was the dominant player in the second half. Briscoe scored 17 of her 25 points after halftime and collected a game-high 19 rebounds as the Rams dominated on the boards.
“Ashley missed a couple of shots early, but I told her to keep her head up. I knew the way Marlena was playing it was going to open up things for Ashley,” Grimm said.
Greensburg Salem pulled to within 58-46 early in the fourth quarter, but Ringgold answered with a quick 10-0 run that included six points from Schmidt and four from guard Kara Foster, who finished with 10 points.
“Post touches were the key,” Schmidt said. “When we get the ball to the post, it usually opens everybody up. It did today and Ashley had a big game.”