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Williamstown girls defeat Ravenswood to win sectional

Williams-town’s Ashley Morris (10) goes up for a basket during a high school girls basketball game against Ravens-wood Friday night. Photo by Tom Perry

WILLIAMSTOWN — Ashley Morris knew she was having a nice game — she just didn’t know how good.

As she stepped to the foul line with less than 10 seconds to play, the Williamstown senior glanced at the scoreboard and the reality hit her.

“That’s when I realized it,” said Morris, who finished with a career-best 37 points in an 82-71 victory over Ravenswood to claim the Class A, Region 4, Section 1 championship Friday night.

Williamstown coach Fred Sauro had nothing but praise for his 5-foot-1 guard.

“She’s definitely worth the price of admission,” he said.

“One of the things I learned early on about coaching is make sure you get the ball in the hands of your best player.”

Morris also had eight rebounds and five assists to complete the all-around performance. She also made those final two foul shots to finish 12 of 16 from the line.

The Yellowjackets needed a late rally to fight off a scrappy Red Devils’ squad that cut a 21-point deficit to three points 3:15 to play. Ravenswood entered the game on a seven-game winning streak in the month of February.

“I was very pleased with the effort tonight,” said Ravenswood coach Cara Williams. “There have been times early in the season that we haven’t given the effort that was necessary. It’s been a great run in February and I’m so proud of the team.”

No. 6 Williamstown (18-5) and Ravenswood (12-13) are back in action at 7 p.m. Thursday. The Yellowjackets host Tolsia (14-11) and the Red Devils travel to fourth-ranked Huntington St. Joe (14-9) in the regional co-finals.

Sauro hopes his team can play a more complete game moving forward.

“We had been in attack mode and that helped get us the lead,” he said. “Then we started taking crazy, wild shots. We forced three or four in a row.”

Sauro called a time out after one of those “wild” shots to try to calm his team down.

“I told them we had to do a better job of taking care of the ball,” he said. “We’re very pleased to get this win because Ravenswood is a good team.”

Morris said the players listened to their coach’s advice.

“He told us to take care of the ball because of the stupid turnovers,” she said. “It seems like every game we let our opponent make a run, but it’s usually in the third quarter.”

Down 63-46 entering the final period, Ravenswood’s Claudia Cubides and Haylie Reynolds quickly pushed the ball down the court and scored 10 and eight points, respectively. The Red Devils opened on a 20-6 run to cut the Williamstown lead to 69-66. But Morris made 3 of 4 foul shot to push the lead back to 72-66.

Cubides, Reynolds and Hunter Gorrell all fouled out in the final two minutes. Cubides finished with 25 points and Reynolds had 21. Post Ali Westenhaver had 16 rebounds for Ravenswood, but she was held to just seven points.

Sauro credited senior Brooke Stewart and sophomore Bethany Arnold for their strong defensive play. Both also had seven rebounds.

“Those two played great games,” he said. “They shut down a very good player.”

Samantha Dedrick had a solid night for Williamstown with 12 points, while Stewart and Courtney Dotson each added seven points in the win.

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