Ridley Raiders

By Samuel Mattei

The Ridley Raiders took the court against their most heated rivals the Interboro Bucs, Friday night at Ridley High School in the first of two games this season

The game took on a mind of its own during the third intermission, with both teams yelling obscenities at each other despite the fans watching on the bleachers. Fouls by Interboro were taken to win but they weren’t enough to take down the Raiders.

After a heated game, Ridley took a last second three pointer by starter Matthew Hilbern, giving Ridley the final points needed to take the game from the Bucs with a score of 89-86.

With the bleachers filled on both sides of the gym, the squads made their way to the court. The game started out more like a chess match, with both teams playing it safe, going back and fourth.
The momentum shifted in the second quarter when Bucs Center Marcus Walker had a rarely seen slam dunk, bringing the Interboro fans to their feet and the score to 38-32.

Coach John Fanning of Ridley called a timeout to get his team in order. Ridley came back fired up with four minutes left in the half. With a few more points under both teams belts, they took to the locker room with a score of 49-47 Bucs.

Ridley came out of the half fired up, their fans on their feet in support. The teams were treating the second half as a different game. Interboro knew they had the lead and had the smarts to outplay Ridley if they chose to do so.

The third quarter started with Ridley hitting two unanswered three pointers, giving Ridley the lead 54-49.

Interboro didn’t let this happen long. Starting a more aggressive approach to the game gave them another advantage against the Raiders.

Interboro went with a four-man offence, giving them opportunities to get in the way or block Ridley players.

With 01:54 seconds left in the third quarter, Fanning called a timeout. Seeing that his team was starting to fall behind, he put in his second string defense. The rejuvenated Raiders came out ready to stiffen the weakened Bucs.

At the ending buzzer of the third quarter, the Raiders were up 69-67.
Tensions grew before the third quarter with players from each team yelling profanities at each other, almost causing penalties.

Both teams had weakened tremendously since the start of the first quarter. The players were slowing down. Off target shots were being taken left and right.

With the Raiders up by a few points, Fanning decided to play the clock. Ridley wound the clock down to mere seconds before shooting.

With minutes left in the game, the score stood at 85-84 Ridley. Still playing the clock, Ridley decided to keep holding on to the ball as long as possible, until Bucs defensemen Kevin Mckenzie fouled Ridley’s Hilbern. The foul by Interboro gave Ridley two foul shots.

Ridley took advantage of the foul shots, making one of two, putting the Raiders up 86-84. Interboro drove up the court with a fast paced two points to tie the game at 86. With 20 seconds left, Interboro was taking their best shot at sending the game into overtime.

Ridley drove up the court slowly taking 10 seconds off the clock. All they needed to do was hold on to the ball to go into overtime. A pass into the paint and out again gave Hilbern one last chance for a shot from the outside line. With five seconds left Hilbern took a daring 3 pointer to make the game 89-84 Ridley.

With three seconds let in the game Interboro attempted a full court shot and failed, giving Ridley its fourth consecutive win.

“This is why we practice so hard every day,” Fanning said. “So we can come out with a hard
fought victory.”