Lady Red Devils slug past Cherryvale

ERIE — The Erie Red Devils girls' basketball team improved to 5-1 overall on Tuesday with a 56-37 victory over the Cherryvale Chargers, who fell to 2-4.

It was both teams' first game back from the winter break. 

Aesthetically, the game was lacking between both squads. There were 47 total fouls called and both Erie and Cherryvale struggled with turnovers. 

"We're just coming back from Christmas break, and we didn't have the best practice last night," Erie head coach Ed Ramsey said. "It carried over a little bit. Plus, it's always a scrappy game with Cherryvale. We played them three times and all three were battles. They do a good job." 

The Chargers were within 10 points for much of the game, but successive turnovers led to transition points for Erie in the second half that swelled the deficit.

"We got frustrated for whatever reason, and we let that turn into more mistakes," Cherryvale head coach David Smedley said. "We had some unforced errors and that allowed Erie to get up 19 instead of just 10." 

Erie saw three scores reach double figures in the contest, with Ali LaForge's 17 points leading the way. Ashlynn Aikins and Ashley Dillinger both scored 11, while Kourtney Wimp, who fouled out, added nine.

"We had three girls in double figures, that shows good balance," Ramsey said. "There's a couple of girls I need a few more buckets from in games, but anytime you get three young ladies in double figures, that's pretty good. We almost had four if Kourtney doesn't foul out." 

Ramsey also praised his team's effort defensively despite a stagnant night offensively.

Cherryvale was led in scoring by three players — Camdyn Forman, Lauren Hucke and Ally Poole — who each had eight points.

"We haven't been shooting well at all," Smedley said, "so I was happy that we created some more opportunities tonight offensively." 

Cherryvale travels to Neodesha on Friday.

"We need to stay more consistent," Smedley said. "They know there were times we just flat messed up, and that's what hurt us. Plus we have to make some shots." 

Erie, meanwhile heads to Bluestem for its next game. 

"Sometimes you need to win the ugly ones," Ramsey said. "We did that tonight. There's a lot of things I saw tonight that were good, but there's things we need to work on as well." 

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