ST. MARYS — At 5-foot-3 inches, Sydney Cisco was the shortest player on the court, but the Roughrider junior point guard stood tall when she hit three 3-pointers in the second period and a fourth in the third period to propel St. Marys past Auglaize County rival New Knoxville, 60-40, in a nonleague affair Thursday night.
Cisco’s treys not only allowed the Roughrider to pull away from the Rangers in the pivotal second and third quarter but also provided the Riders some offensive balance. Cisco finished with a team-high 14 points and teammate Quincy Rable, who added 13, did most of her damage in the paint.
Rable and Shaina Taylor, who had 10 points, did the job inside on both ends of the boards as they neutralized the Rangers inside presence with their defense and their rebounding, Rable ended up with 10 rebounds and Taylor finished with nine caroms.
New Knoxville’s Kenzie Schroer led the Rangers in scoring with 16 points and teammate Jenna Schwieterman added 15 points.
The Riders improve to 3-0 on the season and the Rangers fall to 1-2
St. Marys head coach Nikki Miars called this a big win for her team in the early part of the season.
“The girls came out and played a real good game offensively and defensively,” Miars said. “They rebounded the ball well. New Knoxville is a very good team and this is a good win for our program.”
Ranger head coach Tim Hegemier said his team put in a lackluster performance and they appeared to be going through the motions.
“When you don’t play defense they get wide open shots,” Hegemier said. “We even called a timeout and it did no good. They got to realize this if they want to be a good team. Right now we are not very good.”
Hegemier added that on offensive side he thought his team got some good looks at the basket but he also felt his team forced some shots.
“If you are going to take it, take it in all the way and try and draw a foul, just down stop,” Hegemier said. “I was very disappointed in how we were running our offensive sets. We are going through the motions and they went through the motions all night. Give St. Marys credit. They made the shots.”
Both teams found points hard to come by as the two teams in the game but the Roughriders, behind the inside play of Rable, opened up a 12-8 after the first period.
In the second period, Cisco began to shine. The junior’s first three pointer opened up a 17-11 lead and when Taylor sliced through the Ranger defense for a layup, the Riders owned their biggest lead of the game, 19-11.
The Rangers attempted to get back in the game but each of their buckets was met with 3-pointers from Cisco and by the time the halftime buzzer sounded, St. Marys led 25-18.
But that lead went from seven to 13 within the first two minutes of the second half when Makayla Koch popped one from behind the 3-point arc and Cisco followed with her fourth trey less than 30 seconds later and the Rangers never recovered.
“Syd (Cisco) is a great shooter and a great player,” Miars said. “When she can hit a couple of 3’s that really sparks us and we had a couple of other players hit some three’s. Everybody played and did what they were supposed to do and filled their role tonight.”
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