PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — Ritchie County girls basketball coach David McCullough is a firm believer junior Elsa Law is the Rebels’ best guard since Missy Spangler, the 2001 Mary Ostrowski Award winner as the state’s most outstanding player.
On Wednesday at Parkersburg Catholic, Law was near her best, and so were several teammates, with the Rebels dominating the first quarter and playing plenty well enough from that point forward to score a 65-47 road win and eliminate the Crusaderettes.
Law led all players with 26 points and eight rebounds and was efficient and effective throughout. She made 7-of-12 field-goal attempts with a pair of three-pointers and sank 10-of-11 free throws, while controlling large stretches of a contest her team never trailed in.
“If that’s not an all-state guard, I don’t know what it is,” McCullough said. “She’s one of the hardest-working kids you’ll ever encounter.”
The result sends RCHS (17-7) to the Class A state tournament as the No. 5 seed and a quarterfinal against No. 4 Tucker County awaits.
The Rebels rattled off the first nine points, a stretch that featured consecutive field goals from Callie Smith, whose performance was indicative of the Rebels’ effort.
“Callie was sick. Two days ago, she didn’t come to practice,” McCullough said. “She came for half a day and practiced yesterday, and today she came for half a day.”
The lone free throw Law missed prevented her from finishing off a conventional three-point play after she turned a steal into a layup that left her team with a 17-5 advantage.
Law concluded the first quarter with 13 of her team’s 28 points, keying a strong showing over the first 8 minutes for Ritchie, which shot 11 for 15 to build a 20-point advantage.
“This team is great. There’s not one girl on this team that we don’t need,” Law said. “When we’re all scoring and working hard, it’s hard for them to stop all of us. We work as a team to get baskets.”
Law’s only scoring play of the second quarter was a conventional three-point play 1:47 before halftime that left the Rebels with a 35-13 advantage.
Annie Tokodi-Ruth’s layup, combined with a Meg Roedersheimer triple, allowed Parkersburg Catholic (14-8) to cut its deficit to 17 at halftime.
The Crusaderettes were better on both ends for much of the third quarter, and after trailing 42-20, the home team ran off nine unanswered points with field goals from three different starters and two free throws from Macy Singer over that time.
Tokodi-Ruth’s trey for the final points of the third allowed PCHS to trail 44-32 with 8 minutes remaining.
Roedersheimer’s jumper with 6:50 remaining allowed the Crusaderettes to face a 46-36 deficit, but they’d get no closer.
Instead, Ritchie, which squandered a double-digit advantage through three quarters in a regular season loss to Parkersburg Catholic, maintained its composure and got a triple from Law and Chelsie Jeffrey’s paint bucket to lead, 53-38.
Jeffrey scored inside again moments later and Law accounted for another conventional three-point play with just inside 2 minutes remaining that left the visitors in front, 58-42.
“I was like listen, ‘we know what can happen here and we have to keep after it,’” McCullough said. “We’re getting better at understanding how to take care of the ball in situations when they were zoning us, and not forcing up something. We’re a go-getter type team, and we have to learn sometimes, handle the ball a little bit, work it around and get a nice look for a shot.”
Jeffrey scored 15 points in the win and made 7-of-13 shots.
“Chelsie did her thing tonight,” McCullough said. “She’s a 5-4 or 5-5 guard who takes it to the rack. You saw that tonight, and when she does that, she’s a really good player.”
Also for the Rebels, Emily Bush added nine points, while Smith and Jordan Bailey scored six apiece. Bailey also added seven boards, helping Ritchie dominate the glass for a 38-23 advantage.
Tokodi-Ruth led Parkersburg Catholic with 13 points and Ellie Kinnison scored 11, all but two of which came from threes.
The Rebels had only seven turnovers to 13 for the Crusaderettes, which combined with rebounding, was pivotal in Ritchie attempting 14 more field goals (55-41).
“The loss hurts,” Parkersburg Catholic coach Bob Carr said. “The girls took it hard as they should, but moving forward, they should understand the legacy, if you will. They’ve established girls basketball again. We had the opportunity. I’m proud of them and they fought through a lot of adversity.”