Ritchie-Sayre Play Saves Ravenswood
By Mike Whiteford, The Charleston Gazette, W.Va.
Mar. 16–When Ravenswood desperately needed a basket, it was only natural that Kirk Ritchie would find Anthony Sayre.
With the Red Devils down a point and less than a minute to go, Ritchie slipped past a Keyser defender and fed Sayre underneath for an easy layup and a one-point lead with 24 seconds left.
Dusty Mullins then added two free throws with five seconds remaining to seal Ravenswood’s 49-46 victory over Keyser in the Class AA boys quarterfinals Wednesday morning at the Charleston Civic Center. A crowd of about 6,000 attended.
The victory advances the No. 3 Red Devils (24-1) into the semifinals at 9:30 a.m. Friday against No. 2 Logan, the defending state champion.
Even before their game-winning collaboration Wednesday, Ritchie and Sayre had earned themselves a place in Ravenswood basketball lore, as well as the record book — Ritchie as the school’s all-time assist leader and Sayre as the No. 2 scorer who’s still within reach of the Ravenswood career record.
In the final seconds Wednesday, they did what they’ve been doing together since grade school.
“Kirk made an amazing pass,” said Sayre, “and all I had to do was lay it in.”
Sayre, in fact, expected the play to work smoothly, especially against the kind of defense used by the Golden Tornado.
“I was not surprised at all,” he said. “If any team plays a 1-3-1 [zone defense], that’s going to be open if you get [the ball] there, and Kirk penetrated and made a nice bounce pass, and all I had was one defender.”
Ravenswood coach Mick Price, who called a timeout with 34 seconds left, admired Ritchie’s point-guard efficiency but was not surprised.
“The penetration move that Kirk Ritchie made with the bounce pass to Anthony Sayre was as good as you’ll see,” said Price. “I would have been disappointed if we hadn’t executed because we do it in practice all the time.”
No. 6 Keyser (19-6) led by as many as six points in the fourth quarter and, with 56 seconds remaining, the Golden Tornado called a timeout, leading 46-45 and in possession of the ball.
In those final 56 seconds, Keyser wanted either a layup or a trip to the foul line.
“We were going to run one of our offenses,” said Golden Tornado coach Lindy Shank, “and we were not going to shoot the ball at all unless we had a wide-open layup. They were going to foul us.”
But a Ravenswood player deflected a Keyser pass, precipitating a loose ball and ultimately a held ball. The possession arrow gave the ball to the Red Devils.
“We threw a terrible pass,” said Shank. “We didn’t take care of the basketball.”
After Sayre’s basket, the Golden Tornado still had a chance. Keyser freshman Maurice Newby, who had not been to the foul line the entire game, was fouled with six seconds left but missed the front end of the one-and-one. Mullins rebounded and was fouled.
The Ravenswood season already includes a school-record 18-game winning streak and its 24 wins are another school mark. Sayre, who scored 20 points Wednesday, can set the school scoring record Friday by reaching his average of 25.7 points.
“I think he was 40 points away coming in,” said Price.
The coach said his team can play better.
“We were playing left-handed so much of the day because I just didn’t think we shot the ball that well,” Price said. “We were 1-for-9 in the first half from the 3. We were outrebounded. We just didn’t do a good job in the first half, and we put ourselves in a hole, and then Keyser caught fire. But our kids showed the resilience of why they’re a pretty good team.”
The Red Devils shot just 36.5 percent (19-for-52) from the floor and 2-of-18 from 3-point range. Keyser hit 22-of-46 (47.8 percent) from the field and outrebounded the Red Devils 35-28.
Ravenswood, however, excelled on defense and didn’t allow the Golden Tornado to run its fast break.
“They’re in your face all the time,” said Keyser senior point guard Chris Szafran. “One of our strengths coming into this game was to run, and my hat’s off to [Ravenswood] because every time we tried to run, they would get back. You could tell they worked on that — getting back on defense. That’s our whole game, running. We’re not really a half-court, set-up kind of a team. We’re athletic. We get out and run.”
Ravenswood led 33-27 late in the third quarter, but Keyser rallied, helped by three straight Szafran baskets to open the fourth quarter, and led 41-35 on Lakoda Spencer’s layup with 5:06 left.
In addition to Sayre’s 20 points, the Red Devils got 14, including the first seven of the game, from Mullins. Clay Tyrell led Keyser with 16 points and Szafran added 10. Tyrell and Newby had 12 rebounds each.
To contact staff writer Mike Whiteford, use e-mail or call 348-7948.
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