FORT MILL – The holiday break for most basketball teams around the state is a time for extra games in the form of tournaments. However, for the Catawba Ridge girls’ basketball team, it was a time to recover.
The first-year school didn’t participate in any tournaments over the break, which may allow them to benefit in the long run as they prepare for a playoff run.
Catawba Ridge sits at 11-6 overall on the season and only has nine regular season games left with eight of them being Region 4-3A games.
Head coach Kate Edwards said their schedule was ‘front-loaded’ with three games a week during the first half of their season. Now that schedule is a lot lighter.
“We were in a grind the first part of our season,” Edwards said.
Catawba Ridge practiced during the holiday break and played just one game, a loss to Clover, before coming back to school earlier in the month. The Copperheads are 4-1 since coming back from the holiday break, with its only loss coming on a buzzer beater to region opponent Camden.
The Copperheads went 7-4 before the break and played in some tight games.
“There were some games that we could have dropped,” Edwards said.
Edwards said she isn’t surprised that her team has done so well despite having just 10 players on the roster and seven of them being freshman.
“The team has a good attitude and works hard and that is a recipe for success,” she said.
Most recently, Catawba Ridge beat Northwestern 40-26 and was guided by one of their freshmen in Brielle Windisch, who scored 10 points. The Copperheads jumped out to an 18-5 lead after the first quarter, but had junior Victoria Jordan go down with an ankle injury during the quarter.
Catawba Ridge struggled some the rest of the game without Jordan, but still managed to hold off the Trojans. Edwards said that Jordan’s injury, to her right ankle, isn’t something that should affect the team going forward.
Junior Emma Grace Hilton and freshman Tatum Postel each scored nine points in the win over Northwestern. Postel scored all nine of her points in the second half, while Hilton scored the majority of hers after Jordan went down.
Up next for Catawba Ridge is a return to region play with back-to-back games against Fairfield Central. Edwards believes that the Copperheads can still make a run for the region title or at least a run for a playoff spot.
“We will be good as long as we stay focused,” Edwards said.
Mac Banks: mbanks@comporium.net, @MacBanksFM
