ASHTABULA — Edgewood carried a 26-23 lead into halftime Tuesday night, but visiting Grand Valley flipped the game after the break and held on for a 53-50 win despite a furious late push by the Warriors.
“We got tired, our defensive stance wasn’t there. Everybody was standing,” Edgewood head coach Randy Vencill said. “The girls gave a ton of energy in the first half, and they got worn down in the second. I kind of expected that, and I think (the conditioning) was what limited us.”
The opening half was tightly contested. Addison Spencer gave Grand Valley an early lift off the bench with a pair of baskets, but Carly Kray countered with a strong first quarter, helping Edgewood take a 13-12 lead. Riley Rowland connected twice from beyond the arc in the second quarter for the Mustangs, but Kray and Annie Mae Johnston answered with 3-pointers of their own to send the Warriors into the locker room with a three-point advantage.
Grand Valley seized control coming out of halftime.
Breanna and Riley Rowland combined for 12 points in the third quarter as the Mustangs surged ahead 37-34 entering the final period. Cloe Turk later buried a 3-pointer to stretch the margin to 47-39, setting the stage for Edgewood’s final push.
Kray poured in 11 points in the fourth quarter, with Faith Vencill adding a key basket as the Warriors closed the gap. Edgewood had chances down the stretch, but the comeback fell just short.
“(Carly) was our best player tonight, so we wanted the ball in her hands, but once we got down, we started moving at 120 miles per hour and lost control of our time management,” Vencill said. “We needed to have some more time awareness to know that we don’t need to go full speed with having a lot of time left. Carly did a good job keeping us in it late and imposing her will.”
Late-game execution is part of the learning curve for a young Warriors squad now halfway through its regular-season schedule.
“We go over it in practice. We always talk about the (previous) game the next day in practice about the things we did or didn’t do well, and things we need to improve on,” Vencill said. “We’ll take that time, go over some things, and hopefully next time they understand (the clock) better. As a coach, I have to help them through it.”
Despite the setback, Edgewood sits at 7-4 and continues to show growth since the season opener in late November.
“We have a lot of fight, we have it in ourselves, but we’ve just been coming up short recently,” Kray said. “We have it in ourselves to win games, and I know that down the stretch we’ll be able to pull off some wins.”
Kray led all scorers with 34 points on 11-of-19 shooting, adding eight rebounds and five steals. Vencill recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Edgewood returns to action Jan. 5, when the Warriors travel to Beaumont.
