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Saturday, Jan. 27 – The Rockbridge County High School girls basketball team suffered a 63-25 home loss to Salem in the 10th Rock the Ribbon Roundball Shootout on Saturday morning in Lexington.
The Wildcats (2-16), who were coming off a 60-55 road win over Harrisonburg on Wednesday, struggled against Salem’s defensive press, but Saturday’s performance was an improvement over RC’s 82-20 road loss to Salem on Dec. 29.
In Saturday’s game, the Wildcats trailed 8-5 after Emma Clark hit a 3-pointer, RC wouldn’t score for the rest of the first quarter, and Salem (16-1) took a 23-5 lead into the second quarter.
The Spartans’ 26-0 run lasted until RC’s Ruby Goodhart made an inside shot to cut Salem’s lead to 34-7 with 3:35 left in the first half. At the end of the half, Salem led 36-14.
Salem continued to dominate in the third quarter, forcing several turnovers and outscoring RC 18-3 to take a 54-17 lead into the fourth quarter. Because the lead was 30 points or more, the teams played with a running clock for the entire fourth quarter.
Gabrielle Crawley led the Spartans with 17 points, sinking two 3-pointers, while Ruby Goodhart paced RC with seven points. Both players were named to the all-tournament team.
Clark and Abby Bouchard scored five points apiece for the Wildcats, each making a 3-pointer, while Bella Dorey chipped in four points.
Charli Wynn scored eight points for Salem, while Shaniya Robinson and Emerson Custer each chipped in six.
Salem hit five 3-pointers, while RC made two.
The Wildcats will return to Valley District action on Tuesday when they play host to Spotswood, starting with junior varsity action at 5:30 p.m.
For the full stories on this week’s action, with photos from Saturday’s game, please see our Jan. 31 newspaper.
