LASKER – Ridgecroft School claimed a non-conference victory over league rival Northeast Academy here last week.

The Lady Rams used a dominant third quarter to roll over Northeast 55-35 in the Eagles’ Christmas Tournament.

Leading 23-16 heading into the third quarter thanks to a late barrage in the second period that was paced by Lauren Colson and Miller Bryant, the Lady Rams started the third quarter on an 11-1 run.

Senior Emily Cooke started the spurt for the Lady Rams with back-to-back buckets that were answered by an Ivey Little free throw. Cooke then sandwiched a pair of hoops around a Brice Harrison basket for Ridgecroft. The final point came from Hackney’s free throw that gave the Rams a 34-17 lead with 3:35 to play in the quarter.

Taylor Cocke finally got the Lady Eagles a score with 3:22 to play, but Ridgecroft came back with a free throw from Hackney and a hoop by Bryant. Colson then had back-to-back buckets which were followed by two straight from Cooke and one from Harrison as Ridgecroft built a 47-19 lead.

The final score of the third quarter came when Lacy Pfeiffer hit a hoop for Northeast with eight seconds to play.

The Lady Rams kept the pressure up in the fourth quarter, however, when Bryant and Cooke hit back-to-back buckets to push the lead to 30 (51-21) with 6:33 to play in the game.

Ashton Liverman and Jennifer Sykes then had free throws for the Lady Eagles surrounding a Pfeiffer hoop that closed the gap to 51-25.

Hackney, however, stopped the run with a hoop for Ridgecroft at the 5:04 mark.

Northeast battled back with seven unanswered to close to within 53-32 with 1:05 to play, but a Colson bucket stopped the spurt and Ridgecroft went on to a 55-35 victory.

The contest was close in the early going with Northeast jumping out to a 3-0 lead thanks to consecutive scores by Sykes only to be answered with a hoop each from Bryant and Harrison.

Northeast got a hoop from Liverman and Harrison answered with a free throw to tie the game at 5-all with 2:08 to play in the first quarter. Little scored for the Eagles, but Harrison had back-to-back scores for Ridgecroft to give the Rams a 9-7 lead heading into the second quarter.

The Lady Eagles got things going in the second quarter when Sykes scored four straight and Little hit another hoop to give the home team a 13-9 lead with six minutes to play.

Ridgecroft came back thanks to a three-pointer by Bryant and a hoop from Hackney to edge ahead 14-13.

After Sykes tied the score with a free throw, the Lady Rams got a hoop and a free throw from Cooke to take a three-point edge. Their run moments later left the Rams ahead by seven at the intermission.