By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
By all accounts and purposes Calhoun was in for yet another beating as
Ritchie roared out to a 10-0 lead before the Red Devils got on the board.
By the end of the first quarter Ritchie was rolling 23-7 and by halftime the
lead had ballooned to 28 - 49-21.
Then a funny thing happened - the Red Devils woke up.
Gone were the lapses in defense. Gone were the forced and unforced
turnovers. Gone was the fear and loathing of the Rebels' press. Gone were
the shooting woes.
Well, almost as the Red Devils still had trouble
connecting on some point blank shots.
But all in all a different Red Devil team faced Ritchie after intermission.
This was a team that regained its self-respect.
Not only did the Red Devils put up more of a fight in the second half, they
outplayed the Rebels. But, alas, the 28-point deficit was just too much to
overcome as the Red Devils lost for the 13th time in 14 outings, 77-59,
Monday night.
A perfect example of the second-half attitude the Red Devils had happened on
a bang-bang-bang play early in the third quarter.
Calhoun's Matt Houchin stole the ball from a Ritchie player and turned it
into a break against the Rebels.
But Calhoun clanged a long shot then missed
the follow-up. Then, after grabbing the rebound, missed again. Ritchie got
the ball and headed back down the court only to have Tyler Shartiger steal
it away.
This time the Red Devils scored on their first attempt.
It only cut the Ritchie lead two points but it showed the Red Devils, in
fact, were fighting back.
Red Devils coach Tim Moore was excited about the effort and attitude of the
team. He said they fell too far behind and the shooting was off but other
than that he was pleased with what he saw.
The Red Devils did cut the lead to 14 points - the closest they would get -
late in the fourth quarter before Ritchie scored several times from the foul
line to set the final margin.
Tommy Gerwig led Calhoun with 19 while Shartiger and John Dodd added nine
apiece. Matt Houchin chipped in with eight while Steve Cunningham added six.
Lucas Morford showed some offensive punch off the bench with five and Josh
DeWeese added three.
For Ritchie senior Brett Ridgeway had a game high 23 while Clayton Jones
added 15 and Jeff Adams 10.
Calhoun returns to action Wednesday night at Clay. | 
