Fenton puts an end to Ridgewood momentum

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Ridgewood's Ashley Frey tries to get around Elmwood Park's Amanda Tillich. | Jon Langham~for Sun-Times Media

Updated: March 10, 2012 8:28AM

After beating Chicago Academy last week, the Ridgewood girls basketball team resumed Metro Suburban Conference play against Fenton with hopes of maintaining the momentum gained against the Cougars.

Ridgewood was unable to maintain the momentum of a Jan. 31 win over Chicago Christian, losing to Fenton 53-51 Feb. 2 in a Metro Suburban Conference game.

In that game, the Rebels fell behind by seven, but Jackie Stroud scored 11 straight points, giving the Rebels an 11-7 lead after the first quarter.

At the half, the score was tied at 25 and in the third the Rebels were outscored 13-8 to trail 38-33, heading to the fourth. In the final stanza, the Rebels trailed by three with 16 seconds left and had a chance to tie it, but they missed a three-pointer, enabling the Bison to escape with the victory.

The Rebels were led by Stroud, who had 23 points. Ines Grepo and Jessica Rzewnicki each added eight points. With the loss, the Rebels fell to 12-14 overall and 4-8 in conference play.

“I thought we played very hard against Fenton,” said head coach Karl Frixen. “We have trouble with playing consistently, where we play great for three or four minutes and then all of a sudden struggle to score or we turn the ball over too much for the next couple of minutes and let teams back into the game.

“I thought we showed toughness in getting ourselves back into the game, but when the game was there for us to win we didn’t make the best of decisions or make shots.”

Regarding Stroud’s performance, Frixen said, “Jackie was great against Fenton, knocking down big shots and creating some turnovers that we turned into points. It was great to see her back because the last couple of games she had struggled putting the ball into the basket. I moved her into different spots on the offensive end to hopefully break her out of her slump and it at least worked for this game.”

On Jan. 31, the Rebels beat Chicago Academy 41-31. McCormack led the way in that one with 14 points with Grepo chipping in 10.

In that game, the Rebels were in control throughout, taking a 10-8 lead into the second quarter.

Then they outscored the Cougars 11-2 in the second quarter to take a 21-10 lead into the half. But in the second half, the Rebels allowed them to get back into the game, being outscored 15-11 in the third. But they were able to hang on in the fourth, thanks to solid defensive play down the stretch.

“The fourth quarter saw both teams struggle on the offensive end, but (we) got some needed defensive stops and hit free throws to put the game away and earn the victory,” said Frixen.