Boone County and Ryle renewed their fierce girls' basketball rivalry Friday night in Florence as top-10 teams in state rankings, and it was strength versus strength.
The Rebels, ranked first in the Enquirer Northern Kentucky coaches' poll and fifth in the statewide Litkenhous Ratings, entered play as the 10th-highest scoring team in Kentucky. Ryle, ranked second locally and ninth statewide, is fifth in scoring defense.
In a pivotal 33rd District seeding game, something had to give and it was Ryle's interior defense, which had trouble containing Florida recruit Sydney Moss and post-player Lydia Nash, who combined for 39 points in the Rebels' hard-fought 51-48 win over the rallying Raiders.
Moss, the second-leading scorer in the state with 24.8 points per game, scored a team-high 21. Nash finished with 18.
"Sydney and Lydia came up with some big baskets when we needed them," Boone County coach Nell Fookes said of her seniors. "I thought in the first half we played to perfection. But give Ryle credit for coming back in the second half."
The Rebels (23-1) were held to 23 points below their season average but they outrebounded Ryle (19-4) by a margin of 35-22 and held a 12-6 advantage on the offensive end while pushing their winning streak to 21 straight games.
"Coach said crash the boards and get second shots, and that's what we did," said Moss, who had three baskets on her own stick-backs.
Nash had two baskets following back-to-back Rebels offensive rebounds against Ryle, which lost its first game against a Northern Kentucky team. "There's nothing better than beating Ryle," Nash said.
The Raiders had won three straight and 12 of 13. Boone, which avenged last year's regular-season loss to Ryle, is 22-0 against Kentucky competition and 6-0 against the Litkenhous top 20. The Rebels, who have beaten the Raiders in the past three district tournament finals, are 8-1 against Ryle the last nine meetings. Boone improved to 3-0 in the district while the Raiders fell to 1-1.
"They beat us bad on the offensive boards and that's what killed us," said Xavier recruit Jenna Crittendon, who finished with 21 points after a slow start.
Ryle did not succumb without a fight in another epic battle contested by the perennial powers. Nash put Boone County ahead to stay at 12-10 with the first basket of the second quarter and the Rebels closed the half on a 12-1 run for a 30-16 lead. Boone stretched the advantage to 18 on a Nash third-quarter bucket.
Crittendon, who had just three points at halftime, caught fire after her primary defender, Boone's Zuri Hill, picked up her third foul and went to the bench. Crittendon put in nine of 11 for the Raiders while scoring 12 third-quarter points and whittling the Rebels' lead to six.
A steal and a basket by Dawn Johnson (10 points) pulled the Raiders to within 47-46 with 2:06 to play. Boone's Alexis Switzer answered with a pair of free throws and Moss twirled for a reverse layup to make it 51-46.
Crittendon hit a basket with 28 seconds left but missed a 3-pointer with 2.5 on the clock. Moss poked the rebound to Nash who held the ball until time expired.
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