Rich Hill vs. Ballard

 

On Tuesday night the Rich Hill Tigers met the Ballard Bulldogs in the first round of the District 6 1A playoffs at the Dome in Rich Hill.  The district playoff format is really like a new season for all teams involved. All teams begin this tournament with a 0-0 record and even though there was a previous seeding meeting it usually makes little difference.  From this point on, win and you move on, lose and your season suddenly comes to an end. The Tigers were hoping to continue their season.

 

The first quarter at times has been a challenge for the Tigers to get off to a good start but on this night, Rich Hill controlled the opening tip off and with the offense being patient worked for an open trey to take the early lead. The defense of the Tigers came ready to apply pressure from the git-go and had some success but several early lapses allowed the Bulldogs to mostly keep pace and at the end of one quarter the Tigers led the Bulldogs, 16-12.  In the second frame Rich Hill tightened up their defense and limited Ballard to just five points as the Tigers offense slowed slightly but were able to take a 28-17 lead into the locker room at the half. With some minor adjustments made on both sides of the ball the third quarter proved to be good for the Tigers. Starting off a little slow the Tigers offense got to rolling midway thru, connecting on three long treys and adding several conventional two pointers allowed the team to extend their lead. The defense played hard and was able to contain the Ballard offense again to just seven points. At the end of three, the Tigers held a 45-24 lead. The fourth quarter Rich Hill was able to maintain their advantage over Ballard and Coach Moles was able to go to the bench for most of the final frame. In the end the Tigers were able to win the game over a good Ballard team by score of 59-36. With this win the Tigers move onto the Semi-finals on Thursday night at 5:15 against their longtime rivals, the Hume Hornets.  Hume had advanced in an earlier game of the evening by defeating the Northeast Vernon County Knights. The Tigers were able to improve their season record to 12-14.

Scoring for Rich Hill vs Ballard is as follows, Brady Querry 24, Sage Bolser 14, Clifton Bridgewater 10, Bryce Yohe 7 and Lucas Harwood 4