The two-time defending league champions already upset No. 1 W.F. West at home Tuesday night, using their speed and pressure defense to outlast the Bearcats, and did the same against an aggressive Black Hills squad Friday night in the Hawks’ 72-62 victory over the Wolves at Black Hills High School.
“(This week) was really important,” said Wade, the wing who had a career-high 30 points to lead all scorers. “When we came to practice, we were focused. We know that we cannot take anyone for granted. We just came to play.”
The win puts the Hawks (8-4 overall, 4-0 EvCo) alone atop the EvCo standings, as the Wolves dropped to 9-3 overall and 2-2 in conference. A win by Black Hills would’ve created a logjam for first place with four teams all with 3-1 league records.
The Hawks were battle-tested against a Black Hills team that has been one of the big surprises so far, already surpassing their 4-16 mark from a year ago. Wade, who had a then-career-high of 29 points in the 63-54 victory over W.F. West on Tuesday, had 16 of her 30 points in the first quarter as the Hawks raced out to a 26-14 lead, but led by two at 35-33 at halftime.
Although Black Hills never led after 9-8 early in the first quarter, it cut River Ridge’s lead to 51-48 to start the fourth quarter on a rebound and put-back by Hope Mortensen, who finished with 17 points.
From there, the Hawks got big production from Catriece Baker, as she scored seven of her nine fourth-quarter points in a three-minute span as part of a 14-6 run to give River Ridge a 65-53 lead with 4:51 left. Baker finished with 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting.
River Ridge coach Jackie Robinson called this week a statement week.
“It’s been a tough week,” Robinson said. “I thought we grew up. It was a testament to their character. If anything, we learn from each game.”
Black Hills guard Izzy Campbell, who leads the Evergreen Conference in scoring at 19.2 points per game, had a team-high 24 points, 17 of them coming in the second half. The loss snapped the Wolves’ five-game winning streak.
“I was really proud of their effort,” Black Hills coach Robin Johnson said. “We need to develop some maturity quickly. All of this is experience for us.”
Meg Wochnick: 360-754-5473 mwochnick@theolympian.com
