L-P dominates inside at both ends of floor in win over Hall

SPRING VALLEY – La Salle-Peru came into its nonconference contest against Hall with a plan to get the ball inside to its bigs and take away the inside game of Ella Sterling.

The plan worked to perfection as the Cavaliers came away with the decisive 48-24 victory Monday.

On the very first possession, the Red Devils went over the top of the Cavs defense and Sterling got the bucket to fall, but that was her only basket of the contest.

Early on, both offenses struggled, but halfway through the opening quarter Brie Ruppert got a putback and was fouled and converted the free throw for a 5-2 lead.

After a Caroline Morris fast break layup gave Hall a 6-5 edge, Emma Jereb hit a pull-up jumper that gave L-P the lead for good.

L-P’s Kelsey Frederick was dominating the boards in the first half with eight and one of those led to a 3-pointer for Elli Sines and another to Jereb for a buzzer beater and a 12-6 lead after the first period.

“We wanted to start well early on the road,” L-P coach Adam Spencer said. “We wanted to start with a good vibe and defensively I think we did that, especially with Sterling after that initial basket.”

A Drew Depenbrock rebound led to a Hall foul and two free throws to start the second. Another strong move by Ruppert inside pushed the Cavs' lead to 16-6 that capped off an 11-0 run.

A pair of Sterling free throws ended the run, but the next time down the floor Ruppert sank a 15-foot jumper for a 20-8 L-P advantage.

“We knew they were going to try and lob the ball in to Sterling,” Ruppert said. “So we knew we just needed to have that help rotation and I thought we did a nice job tonight of that.

“On offense I thought we did a nice job getting the ball inside and then as the game went on our guards hit some nice shots and we just spread the ball around and were balanced.”

Moments later, Frederick grabbed a rebound and then went coast to coast for a layup that pushed the lead to 22-8 before Hall’s Charlie Pelligrini drove the lane and hit a floater as the half was coming to a close. L-P led 24-10 at the break.

L-P opened the second half with similar results as the first half as Frederick picked up a rebound and a putback to expand the lead to 26-10.

Kennedy Wozniak drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key and then Pellegrini drove and hit a bank shot to cut Hall’s deficit to 26-15.

L-P had an answer though as Frederick found Sines for a 3-pointer as Hall was collapsing the lane, forcing L-P to hit outside shots.

“I thought we did a better job of taking away the inside game in the second half,” Hall coach TJ Orlandi said. “We even hit a couple shots that cut it to 11, but turnovers again killed us like they have throughout the year and L-P took advantage of that.”

Jereb converted a fast break into a three-point play as the lead ballooned to 32-18.

Wozniak then hit Morris inside for a bucket, but once again L-P had an answer as Frederick drove the lane and hit a bank shot right before the buzzer to put the Cavs ahead 34-20 heading into the final eight minutes.

Ruppert started the fourth with a putback to push the lead to 16 points.

Moments later, Wozniak drained a 3-pointer for Hall, but as they did all night the Cavs answered right away. Sines connected for a fast break layup and then Jereb hit a short jumper.

Both teams committed 20 turnovers, but the difference came as L-P continued to make the REd Devils pay for theirs as Jereb turned one of those into a 3-pointer as the Cavs cruised to a 48-24 victory.

L-P had three in double figures with Ruppert leading the way with 16 points, while Sines had 12 and Jereb 11.

Morris and Pellegrini led Hall with seven each.

L-P dominated the boards 34-15 with Frederick grabbing a game-high 14 boards.