Ridge Girls Lose to Top Seed in Somerset County Tournament

The Ridge Red Devils girls basketball team was eliminated from the Somerset County Tournament in the quarterfinal round on Saturday afternoon in Bridgewater, falling to the Bridgewater-Raritan High School Panthers 71-27. 

Kristen Helmstetter dominated for the Panthers, scoring 24 points throughout the game, as well as racking up plenty of rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. Ridge struggled with a Bridgewater full court press that they could not effectively penetrate from the very beginning of the game.

"We knew they were going to pressure us," said Red Devils head coach Cherie Stappenbeck. "We focused on keeping the ball of the sideline in practice."

But despite focusing on getting the ball to the middle of the court in practice, the Red Devils kept getting caught on the sidelines by Bridgewater defenders, and were struggling to generate any offense. The amount of penalties called against the Red Devils did not help matters, and they were called for numerous travels, carries, and double-dribbles throughout the game.

By halftime, the Red Devils had committed seven penalties, while the Panthers had only committed three.

Ridge showed some strength in the first half, despite trailing 10-0 halfway through the first quarter. By the end of the first Ridge had begun scoring, and trailed 19-8. But for the first four minutes of the second quarter, the Red Devils were playing well, led by Misaki Ishii, who scored seven points in the second quarter, including a three-pointer.

"I felt we could have won this game, especially in the second quarter. We were moving the ball so well," said Ishii.

Ishii was playing passionately throughout the game, fighting for rebounds against a much larger Bridgewater team and trying to break through the tough Panther defense.

At halftime, the Red Devils trailed by 14, but by the end of the third quarter they were trailing by 28 after being outscored 18-4 in the third.

With 3 minutes left in the game, Helmstetter was still leading on the court for Bridgewater while they held a 40 point lead. Still, despite being beat my such a large margin, some of the Red Devils felt that they had played better against Bridgewater this time than they had earlier this season, when they were defeated 70-36.

Bridgewater, who came into the game against Ridge with a 17-1 record, has not lost since Jan. 8, when they fell to North Hunterdon (15-1) for their only loss of the season. The Panthers are the top seed in the Somerset County Tournament this year.