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Young Girard team dominated by South Range

POLAND — South Range displayed complete dominance from start to finish in its 62-35 shellacking over Girard in the United Way Holiday Basketball Classic at Poland High School.

The Raiders were led by seniors Anthony Ritter and Daniel Ritter who finished with 13 and 11 points, respectively. Sophomore Jaxon Anderson provided 12 points off the bench for SR and received high praises from coach John Cullen after the game.

“He’s growing for us by leaps and bounds, he’s a freak athlete who is really starting to figure the game out and just gets better each day,” Cullen said about Anderson.

Sophomore Austin Clausell paced the Indians with seven points in the loss.

South Range jumped out to an early 11-2 lead following a Ritter 3-pointer from the wing. The Raiders’ length on defense caused havoc for the Indians all quarter leading to an 11-4 advantage after one.

“We were not ready to play today, it’s as simple as that,” Girard coach Craig Hannon said.

South Range picked up where it left off with two quick baskets, forcing Girard to burn a timeout, down 15-4 with 5:41 left in the half.

The Raiders continued their first-half dominance, going on an 11-3 run to take 22-7 lead. Clausell ended the run with just over a minute remaining in the half with a 3-pointer from the top of the key, cutting the lead to 22-10.

“They all hustle,” Cullen said. “Its not a matter of just one guy having to go make a play, everyone is active and that makes a big difference.”

South Range came out of the locker room with the same intensity they had in the first half, with five quick points to extend their lead 27-10.

Girard senior Anthony Graziano briefly stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer from the left wing.

The Raiders responded with an 8-0 run over the next minute to take a 35-13 lead with 5:20 remaining in the third quarter.

Girard had no answer for South Range and trailed 47-25 going into the final quarter.

“We are a young team and tonight was a good learning experience for them,” Hannon said. “Every night you have to be ready to go. We have to realize that we wont be able to walk out and just beat people, that we have to prepare and play hard.”

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