Edgewood girls blank Ross in third quarter, remain unbeaten in SWOC

The wins keep piling up for Edgewood High School’s girls basketball team, even if the style points don’t.

The Southwest Ohio Conference’s best defensive unit won with ‘D’ again Saturday afternoon, shrugging off a ragged first half to blank visiting Ross in the third quarter en route to a 42-25 victory.

“Our team is all about defense. That’s who we are,” Cougars coach Greg Brown said. “It’s not pretty, but they win on the defensive side of the ball, and they’re resilient as heck.”

Jessa Brown scored 11 points and Cierra Lipps had 10 for Edgewood, which improved to 14-1 overall and 8-0 in the SWOC. The Cougars have a two-game conference lead over second-place Talawanda.

Edgewood was stymied by 16 first-half turnovers and took a 16-14 lead into halftime against the Rams (3-13, 2-7). The hosts then ran off the next 20 points.

“We weren’t putting it together in the first half, but it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish the game,” said Cougars senior Lauren Gerber, who had seven points and four rebounds.

“We’re really good at picking each other up at halftime. We knew exactly what we were doing wrong. We just came together and said, ‘We’ve got to get it done,’ and we did.”

Brown said Edgewood didn’t make big changes at the break, just a few offensive and defensive adjustments.

“We tweaked offensively what we were doing against their zone and started attacking a little bit more and started running with the ball a little bit more so they couldn’t get set up in their zone,” Brown said. “And we wanted to play a little better defense.

“We’ve been living by the motto that we’re going to ignore the noise and just play in the present. We challenged the girls in the locker room, but we were in good spirits. We’ve been in that situation numerous times, so the girls handled it well. We didn’t keep making the same mistake over and over again. These girls learn from their mistakes. They fix it, and then they go play.”

Sara Schaefer added seven points and 11 boards for the Cougars. Haley Rogers and Olivia Chaney paced Ross with seven and six points, respectively, and Karlie Becker totaled five rebounds.

The Rams have been decimated by injuries, yet entered Saturday’s contest with a two-game winning streak.

“We come out in the second half down two points to a team that’s winning the league … and we throw up a 17-0 quarter,” Ross coach Rodney Parrett said. “I told ’em the first two or three minutes of the quarter was going to decide the game, and it did. They went on a quick eight- or nine-point run, and we just crumbled.”

He was pleased, but not surprised, that his team didn’t wave the white flag in the final period. The Rams finished with 27 turnovers.

“I’ve had four ACL tears, a broken arm and an MCL strain, and that’s my starting five and my No. 6 girl,” Parrett said. “Nobody thought we’d win a game all year. As a coach, it’s frustrating to get beat by 15, 20, 25 points knowing that I’ve got 30 or 40 points on crutches.

“I’m playing some girls who under normal circumstances wouldn’t be playing varsity. But the thing I like is they’re not making excuses. We’re going to play hard and play for each other no matter what, and that’s what they’ve bought into. We’re going to struggle this year, but we’re going to come back strong.”

Edgewood defeated Ross 46-30 on Dec. 17 in Ross Township. The Rams started two freshmen (Korryn Justice and Brooklyn Breaker) on Saturday.

“Give Ross credit,” Brown said. “Rodney’s a good coach, and they came ready to play. Whenever you’re at the top, you’re going to get the other team’s best effort, and that’s what we got in the first half.”

The Cougars have four SWOC games left and will travel to Northwest on Monday. Edgewood shared the title with Talawanda in 2014-15, though Brown said the Cougars have never won an outright league championship.

“I still don’t think this team has reached its potential,” he said. “I don’t think they know what their potential is yet. But my gosh, they know how to win, and they’re a great group of kids.”

The Rams will be at home against Mariemont on Monday.

Ross 4-10-0-11—25

Edgewood 9-7-17-9—42

ROSS (3-13, 2-7 SWOC): Julia Nunn 2 1 5, Korryn Justice 2 0 4, Brooklyn Breaker 0 1 1, Karlie Becker 0 2 2, Olivia Chaney 1 3 6, Haley Rogers 2 2 7. Totals: 7-9-25

EDGEWOOD (14-1, 8-0 SWOC): Jessa Brown 4 1 11, Tori Childers 0 1 1, Lauren Gerber 3 0 7, Cierra Lipps 4 0 10, Emma Allen 1 0 2, Sara Schaefer 1 5 7, Lexie Sparks 2 0 4. Totals: 15-7-42

3-pointers: R 2 (Chaney, Rogers), E 5 (Brown 2, Lipps 2, Gerber)

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