Riverdale rolls over Lady Pioneers
MURFREESBORO — The Lady Pioneers ran into a buzzsaw Tuesday night in the form of the defending District 7-AAA champion Riverdale Lady Warriors.
Led by Miss Basketball contender Krystle Horton, Riverdale’s girls dominated the game from the opening tip, as they took a 61-29 victory.
Horton, a senior, single-handedly out-scored the Lady Pioneers, as she posted 30 points to help her team improve to 17-5 overall and 7-1 in district play. With the loss, the Lady Pioneers fell to 12-9 (1-6 district).
“We’re struggling right now, there’s no doubt about that, and Riverdale is a very good basketball team,” said WCHS coach Ann Eades. “We’re just going to have to weather the storm and keep trying to get better.”
Riverdale’s defense forced 20 WCHS turnovers, and turned most of them into easy Horton layups as they took a 17-7 lead out of the first quarter and found themselves up 31-14 by the halftime break.
Whitney Pelham, who led the Lady Pioneers with 15, posted seven of her team’s nine-point total in the third quarter, but Horton put up eight of her own to expand the Riverdale lead to 20 points (43-23) heading into the game’s final stanza.
The lanky senior netted eight more points in the fourth quarter, and Warren County scored just twice from the field as the Lady Warriors cruised to the victory.
In addition to Pelham’s 15, the Lady Pioneers got four points each from Jasmine Ware and Tia Williams. Vanessa Cornelius and Katie Simpson scored two each, and freshmen Amanda Locke and Alysa Lankford added a free throw apiece.
Andrea Dowell scored 11 for Riverdale, while Amber Brown had six, Anna Norfleet and Christi Morris had five each, and Mosheda Pettus scored four.
The Lady Pioneers will look to get back on the winning track in District 7-AAA play tonight, when they play host to Cookeville at 6:30.