How Northwestern game, holiday break could affect Catawba Ridge girls’ basketball

The holiday break for most basketball teams around the state is a time for more games — but for the Catawba Ridge girls’ basketball team this season, it was a time to recover.

The first-year team didn’t participate in any tournaments over the break, which may benefit the team in the long run as it prepares for a playoff run.

Catawba Ridge sits at 11-6 overall on the season and only has nine regular season games left, eight of them being Region 4-3A games.

Head coach Kate Edwards said her team’s schedule was “front-loaded” with three games a week during the first half of the Copperheads’ season. Now, that schedule is a lot lighter.

“We were in a grind (for) the first part of our season,” Edwards told The Herald after a game against Northwestern on Wednesday night.

Catawba Ridge practiced during the holiday break and played just one game, a loss to Clover, before coming back to school earlier in the month. The Copperheads are 4-1 since coming back from the holiday break — their only loss coming on a buzzer-beater against Camden.

The Copperheads went 7-4 before the break and played in some tight games.

“There were some games that we could have dropped,” Edwards said.

Edwards said she isn’t surprised that her team has done so well despite having just 10 players on the roster and seven of them being freshmen.

“The team has a good attitude and works hard and that is a recipe for success,” she said.

Most recently, Catawba Ridge beat Northwestern, 40-26, on Wednesday night and was guided by one of its freshmen, Brielle Windisch, who scored 10 points. The Copperheads jumped out to an 18-5 lead after the first quarter, but had junior guard and team leading scorer Victoria Jordan leave and never return after going down with an injury in the quarter.

Catawba Ridge struggled some the rest of the game without Jordan, but still managed to hold off the Trojans.

Junior Emma Grace Hilton and freshman Tatum Postel each scored nine points in the win over Northwestern. Postel scored all nine of her points in the second half.

Up next for Catawba Ridge is a return to region play with back-to-back games against Fairfield Central. Edwards believes that the Copperheads can still make a run for the region title, or at least a run for a playoff spot.

“We will be good,” Edwards said, “as long as we stay focused.”

Mac Banks: mbanks@comporium.net, @MacBanksFM

This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 8:24 AM.