East Ridge Girls Basketball Ends Season With Loss to Henry Sibley

Back in December, the girls basketball team won its third game of the season in a matchup against Henry Sibley in the championship game of the Warriors' four-team tournament.

On Monday night, Henry Sibley got its revenge, 62-42, as the Warriors opened the Section 4AAAA Tournament by ending the Raptors' season. The loss wraps up East Ridge's second year of competition with a 7-20 record.

"We're not about the wins at this point," Raptors coach Glen Wurm said. "Statistically, though, we have improved from last year."

The refinements East Ridge has made to its game were not on display in the sectional opener. The Raptors struggled to mount a consistent offense from start to finish in the 20-point defeat.

"I thought we defended well in the first half, but you've got to be able to score and we had a hard time doing that," Wurm said.

East Ridge went eight-and-a-half minutes before it posted its first points on a steal and layup from guard Hannah Pignato.

Despite the late start to the scoring, the Raptors trailed just 6-2. The team then went on a quick and brief flurry to take a 7-6 lead within 75 seconds.

But the surge would not last.

While East Ridge did maintain its slim edge for the majority of the next three minutes, Henry Sibley took the advantage for good in the closing moments of the half and led by five points, 24-19, on a buzzer-beating three-pointer from center court.

The Raptors would not be that close again, as the Warriors went on a tear in the second half to lead by as many as 28 points before the game ended with both teams playing their reserves as the final horn blew.

"We made some mistakes and had some defensive breakdowns in the second half," Wurm said. "It proved costly—all of a sudden the floodgates opened."

East Ridge forward Jamie Swanson led all scorers with 17 points in the loss as the Raptors 2010-11 campaign came to a close.

While it was a rough way for the year to end, Wurm said the season did have several highlights—most notably, a regular-season ending win at Forest Lake last Friday.

"It was unbelievable," he said. "It was just a fantastic game for us."

The Rangers became the first Suburban East Conference team not from Hastings that East Ridge defeated.

"How sweet and deserving that was for the girls," the coach said. "That night, the better team won. It was a long bus ride home, but it was a good one."

Wurm believes that next winter will hold even greater successes for the Raptors.

"We're still a young team," he said. "We improved this year and I hope we can continue to improve next year."