Huntington girls basketball stumps Ripley, cruise to nonconference win behind defensive effort

HUNTINGTON TOWNSHIP − By all accounts, Huntington's 58-38 win over Ripley wasn't far removed from its typical game-to-game approach.

The Huntsmen didn't act flashy on the offensive end on Thursday night. It wasn't necessary. Their shooting, while dipping slightly in the third quarter, never hit an extended dry spell. They didn't beat the Ladyjays out on the glass by a wide margin − the Huntsmen won the rebound battle 23-20. Aside from Allie Baker funneling a game-high 26 points on 46.2 percent shooting, the Huntsmen ran a concise, controlled offense from start to finish.

What Huntington did do, however, was knock Ripley up and down the court for 32 minutes. It harassed Ripley from start to finish, nabbing 16 steals along the way and locking down its fifth win of the year.

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"In all honesty, just playing really, really well on the defensive end," Huntington coach Kyle Uhrig said. "Really the entire season, we've played pretty good on the defensive end and been able to take teams out of what they want to do. Tonight was another example of that. Our defense turned into offense a lot. It wasn't coming down and running a lot of sets or running a lot of our stuff, it was just getting out of transition and being able to get easy baskets off turnovers."

Granted, the Huntsmen weren't in control for the entire game. The Ladyjays held the lead for 23 seconds in the first quarter after sinking a pair of free throws. But after Baker drained her first of three 3-pointers, the Huntsmen wrestled control away.

Nothing broke Huntington's defense from that point. It stuck to Ripley from tipoff and didn't relent until the clock ran out. Open looks became few and far between. Ripley went just 13-for-37 from the field and made just four field goals through the entire first half. Huntington picked up 16 steals and nabbed open shots while Ripley was still in transition.

Huntington scored 17 points in the first quarter. Ripley didn't break double figures until there was 1:38 left in the first half.

Of course it helped that the Huntsmen didn't stick the offense on one lone player. Although Baker led the team in scoring, she was one of eight Huntsmen to score by the end of the night. 14 combined assists didn't hurt the Huntsmen's scoring opportunities, either.

Emma Hinshaw sank the Huntsmen's other 3-pointer and ended the game with nine points. Leah McCloskey tacked on seven points behind consistent work in the paint. Savannah Bushatz even came off the bench to rip off a quick six points on Thursday.

"The effort was good, we've just got a lot of kids doing a lot of good things," Uhrig said. "Some of them got a chance to play a little more than they're used to, which we're going to need down the road."

The Ladyjays found some consistency from the field after halftime. But it was too late to make an impact. The Huntsmen held a 27-point lead by the end of the third quarter and only gave up enough ground to end the game with a 20-point margin of victory.

Thursday is the kind of night Uhrig wants from the Huntsmen. Defense has been their strong suit this season. When it works best, it can feed right into the offense without much disconnect in transition. On Thursday night, at least, there was no disconnect. Every stop, every forced turnover and every block the Huntsmen made only pushed them to another win by a double-digit margin.

"Our kids like to play, that's the great part, is that they're competitors," Uhrig said. "That's what I like about this group. When the ball gets thrown in the air, they want to compete. You saw that tonight, too."

This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: Huntington girls basketball puts on defensive showcase, stumps Ripley at home