RESERVE RUNS AWAY IN THE FOURTH

By Ty Bartell

BERLIN CENTER OH- A new week has begun, not only on the countdown to Christmas, but also another full
week of high school basketball tipped-off the week on Monday night. Multiple games, both conference and non-conference matchups, were featured on the network with a total of 10 games aired live!
One of those matchups took place in Berlin Center, Ohio known as the home to The Western-Reserve Blue Devils. Members of The Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference’s (MVAC) Scarlet Division,

The Blue Devils scheduled themselves a trio of tough early-season matchups to prepare for the conference. Still searching for their first win, Reserve hosted The Struthers Wildcats of The Northeast 8 (NE8) who were also searching for their first taste of victory in the new season. With plenty to play for and a lot to be excited about, both these teams have worked hard and someone was getting their first win to show for it!
The Blue Devils grabbed the early momentum, playing good defense while it seemed there was a lid on the bucket for The Cats, allowing Western-Reserve to grab the early advantage 14-7 after a quarter. Struthers would hang around a deal some blows of their own following some great effort defensive plays that created turnovers in the second. The Blue Devils managed to hold off a hot Struthers team in the second to hold a Monsters Inc. lead of 23-19!
A defensive-focused third quarter saw both teams held under double-digits in the frame, with Reserve still leading 31-26 after three as Struthers began to surge. Only able to hold the surging Wildcats off for so long as Katelyn Kimble came back into the game from an injury and nailed down a big three to take a lead for Struthers in the second half. However, Western-Resrve took that punch and got red hot in the fourth! Shooting the lights out from distance! The Blue Devils managed to outscore Struthers 25-16 in the fourth, courtesy of both Quincy Miller and Kylee Ramsey, propelling Western-Reserve past Struthers by a final score of 56-42.

Player of the Game went to Kylee Ramsey for knocking down three shots from distance in the fourth and piling up 10 of her 16 points in the final quarter. Her partner in crime Quincy Miller also had herself a great game, scoring 15 points and having 10 of her own fourth quarter points. Meaning both Ramsey and Miller made up 20 of their teams 25 fourth quarter points! Alyvia Hughes and Izzy Mauro followed behind them with 8 points each and Lisa Eichert finished with 7 points. For Struthers, The Cats had multiple players score 5 points in the game, leading the way was Natalie Adams who had 7 points on the night.

Western-Reserve (1-2) will now rest for a week before hitting the road to battle MVAC Scarlet champs from a year ago, The Springfield Tigers (2-1) on Monday, December 11th with a 7 p.m. tip-off. Stuthers (0-3) will look to get on track when they host STeel Valley Conference’s (SVC) Youngstown East (1-1) also on Monday, December 11th.

Keep updated with MVAC, NE8 and SVC basketball all season long with live games, scores, stats, stories and more featured on YSN!