The Rising Sun Lady Shiners defeated the Switzerland County Lady Pacers 43-31 in Ohio River Valley Conference play Tuesday, January 23rd in Vevay.
The win gave Rising Sun a sweep of all four (boys and girls) Ruler of the River rivalry games for the first time in the Vevay Media Group sponsored event.
It was the fourth game in a week for the Lady Pacers, which included a loss at Jac-Cen-Del and bouncing back a night later to down Oldenburg Academy. After a second straight win on Saturday over South Decatur, the Pacers came up short against New Washington then had to turn around for back-to-back games for the second time in the seven game stretch.
The Lady Pacers had the early lead, 7-6, in a slow paced, deliberate game. Rising Sun’s leading scorer Lucy Carrigan picked up the first of six steals and hit a three-pointer to give Rising Sun an 8-7 after one quarter.
Baskets by freshman Maddi Wilson and Danyka Groover put Rising Sun up five before Keirstan Oeffinger scored the Pacers’ first basket of the quarter with 3:17 remaining in the half. Aleiah Thomas buried a three-pointer at the buzzer sending the Pacers into halftime with momentum and trailing by one, 14-13.
Calleigh Powell gave the Pacers the lead to start the second half – but it turned out to be their last time.
Danyka Groover’s three point play led Rising Sun to a 10 point lead, 25-15.
The Pacers rallied to close the gap to four, 27-23, after three quarters.
Lexi Lay had a pair of free throws and McKenli Scudder scored four points.
The Pacers got back to within three before Maddi Wilson drilled a three-pointer with 3:17 remaining.
The Shiners built an 11-point lead with Sydney Bostic hitting a free throw and Carrigan grabbed the offensive board and was fouled. She scored four straight free throws for a 39-28 advantage with 2:16 remaining. Lay’s three-pointer then stopped an 8-0 Shiners run.
Carrigan closed with a game high 19 points on a fast break baseball pass from Groover, who scored the final basket off an assist from Bostic.
Carrigan was held under her conference leading 24 point scoring average but her defense held Switzerland County’s Thomas to a single second half basket.
It was a big night for Danyka Groover with 14 points (6-for-13 from the field) and 13 rebounds, including six offensive boards.
Rising Sun had a 30-22 edge in rebounding (unofficially). Jaelyn Hemingway came off the bench to lead the Pacers with five rebounds.
Thomas led the Pacers with 11 points on just 3-for-14 from the field. Lay added seven points with Scudder adding six points. Powell added three points Senior Jody Breeck and Oeffinger had two each. Scudder, Powell and Breeck had four boards each.
Rising Sun was 16-for-42 from the field for 38 percent including 2-for-7 from 3-point range and 9-for-15 at the line.
Switzerland County finished 10-for-34 including 3-for-8 from behind the arc (30-percent) and 8-for-10 at the line.
Rising Sun improved to 3-2 in ORVC play and 10-11 overall heading into the regular season final tonight (Thursday) at home against Shawe. They will play Waldron in the sectional on Wednesday.
Switzerland County will take a 2-3 ORVC mark and a 5-16 overall into the regular season home finale tonight (Thursday) against sectional favorite South Ripley. The Pacers open sectional play against Southwestern this Tuesday.
– Tim Hillman