Catawba Ridge girls’ basketball head coach Kate Edwards wasn’t ready to say her team has locked up a playoff spot, but they are close.
The Copperheads ran through the York Cougars 40-11 Monday night to improve to 11-2 overall and 4-1 in Region 3-4A.
“We are playing well,” Edwards said. “The offense is starting to click. It’s been a slow process with the starting and stopping. We do have a good chance to make the playoffs.”
Up next for Catawba Ridge is a home game Wednesday against Lancaster, who is 2-0 in region play, and just 2-2 overall. The Copperheads then will face South Pointe on the road Thursday in a critical game regarding a playoff spot. South Pointe is currently 3-0 in region play sitting atop the standings.
If the Copperheads play their remaining games this week the way they played against York, they will be a tough opponent for both Lancaster and South Pointe. Against York, Catawba Ridge was led by Victoria Jordan, who dropped in 17 points.
Catawba Ridge shot 50 percent from the field in the opening quarter hitting 5-of-10 shots as the Copperheads opened up a 12-0 lead after the first quarter. The second quarter was much of the same as Catawba Ridge led 20-2 at the half.
“Defensively, we are playing well,” Edwards said.
The third quarter was just as strong for Catawba Ridge with the Copperheads outscoring York 16-6 and took a 36-8 lead into the final quarter.
The Catawba Ridge boys are still under COVID-19 protocol and will return to action next week with a game at Lancaster Feb. 10 and then host Indian Land Feb. 12.
From there the boys will participate in a single elimination region tournament the week after with there being a play-in game between the four and five seeds playing Feb. 15. The second round will be Feb. 16 with the winner of the play-in game playing the number one seed and the two and three seeds also playing the same night. The region finals will be Feb. 18 with both finalists making the playoffs. The higher seeds for each game will host. The tournament is happening because there isn’t enough time to get all the region games in before the playoffs are set to start Feb. 22. The seeding will be based on the results of how teams did head-to-head against each other in at least one region game.
The girls aren’t scheduled to have a tournament because they should get the majority of their games in at this point, and will use a traditional 1-2 finish in the region to set their playoff qualifiers.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
