By VINCE LOVERGINE
TopSports.news
SALINA -- Rossville's girls had No. 1 Ellinwood on the ropes down the stretch, almost erasing a 15-point deficit in the second half, but the Eagles held off the Bulldawgs for a 55-48 victory.
Rossville senior Rylee Dick scored 31 points in Tuesday's 55-48 loss to Ellinwood in a Class 2A state quarterfinal. [File photo/TSN]
“I knew me being a leader on the court, I had to step up and show my girls that I believed in us and I was going to put in my full effort,'' said Rossville senior standout Rylee Dick. "I try to lead by example every game for all the other girls and I hope that throughout my four years they can take that away from me.”
Rossville jumped out to an early 7-2 lead thanks to a couple of 3-pointers from Dick and freshman Bristol Miller.
The Eagles brought it to within one as sophomore Brynn Widener converted a four-point play, banking in a three off the left wing to make it 7-6.
Ellinwood went on an 8-0 run to lead 10-7 but then Rossville scored four straight to lead 11-10. It was knotted at 13 after Miller kissed one off the glass before the first-quarter buzzer.
“Honestly, that was one of my fears coming in was nerves and being tight, even at sub-state too,'' Rossville coach Derek Dick said. "It was nice to see the ball go through the net early after not scoring much as of late. I was really happy to see that kind of got us going to calm our nerves a little bit. We knew they were going to make a run and we had to make adjustments defensively to negate what they were good at but they were going to make shots.
“I’m proud of the girls because when we struggled this season, every game we showed flashes of being really good and teams would make a run like they did and we wouldn’t respond and we did that tonight and we got it down to what two or three? They answered the bell. We had great seniors that all of them played their roles and that’s what I’m proud of.''
The back and forth continued for both teams. Junior Nora Burdiek finished off an and-one opportunity to tie it at 16. She ended with nine points, 11 rebounds, two assists and two blocks. It would be a 20-20 deadlock after Rossville called a timeout with 2:18 left in the half.
After that, the Eagles ripped off a quick 8-0 run, forcing the Bulldawgs to call another timeout. Widener knocked down two quick threes to help spark the run.
Ellinwood took an 11-point lead (32-21) at halftime as Widener had 16 points in the first 16 minutes.
In that first half however, Derek Dick was pleased to see Miller (who finished with seven points) step up into that third scorer for the program with Rylee Dick and Burdiek and pick things up quickly.
“Her doing that really helped us because with both Rylee and Nora, we saw some exotic defenses this year and they weren’t able to handle that third option (Miller) and that was big,'' Derek Dick said. "The younger girls, I tell them my quote is, ‘Hard work always wins,’ and I hope they see her (Rylee’s) hard work and how that paid off. I know they showed that a lot and they know what it takes to get back here.''
To begin the second half, RHS dug itself a 15-point deficit (36-21), but Rylee Dick came to the rescue to get the Bulldawgs back in the hunt.
“Ironically, enough for us to get back in the game, it was forcing it to her and got us back in the game,” Derek Dick said.
Rylee Dick knocked down two more threes, trimming the game to a nine-point deficit (38-29). She nailed five 3s in the game and made all eight of her free throws.
After the Eagles extend the lead back to double digits, Dick scored four straight to make it a 41-34 game. The Bulldawgs kept hanging around, trailing be seven heading into the fourth (46-39).
The fourth quarter was Rylee’s show, helping Rossville get within three (46-43) off a fastbreak steal and then two after another triple (50-48). She finished with a game-high 31 points.
In the end, Rossville just ran out of gas. Ellinwood hit free throws to ice the game and knock out the Bulldawgs, ending their campaign at 15-11.
“There’s times that it looks bad, but I told the team, it may look bad now, but for us and where we want to go, we have to do the little things to get to where we want to be so that’s why we made changes throughout the year,'' Derek Dick said. "I wish we would’ve won. I wish we could go and practice tomorrow, but I’m just glad that all of our girls got to be on the big stage because they deserve it.''
“It’s going to be hard leaving these girls,'' Rylee Dick said. "They do stuff that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet. Great leaders during practice and everything else. The bond we have is great. Tough loss. We knew we were the eight seed, they were the one seed, but we were well prepared. I think everyone left their best effort out there.
"We talked in the locker room about how proud and grateful we were of each other. I hope that our girls can be back here next year and I can be watching from the stands.''
ELLINWOOD 55, ROSSVILLE 48
Ellinwood 13 8 18 9 – 55
Rossville 13 19 14 9 – 48
Ellinwood (26-1) – Regan Widener 1-4 0-0 2, Maxwell 4-13 1-2 10, Brynn Widener 7-12 4-7 21, Schlessiger 2-11 0-0 4, Batchman 2-4 0-0 5, Joiner 1-4 0-0 2, Ritchie 2-7 4-10 8, Stickney 0-1 0-0 0, Panning 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 20-58 9-19 55.
Rossville (15-11) -- Ellery Sanders 0-0 0-0 0, Dick 9-21 8-8 31, Maggie Sanders 0-1 1-2 1, Burdiek 3-12 3-5 9, Miller 3-11 0-2 7, Bunck 0-1 0-0 0, Mitchell 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-47 12-17 48.
3-point goals -- Rossville 6 (Dick 5, Miller), Ellinwood 6 (Widener 3, Batchman, Panning, Maxwell). Total fouls -- Ellinwood 18, Rossville 14. Fouled out -- none. Technical fouls -- none.
