Ridgefield girls basketball squad looks to postseason after rocky start

Posted

The Ridgefield Spudders earned their first win just before winter break, and now they enter the final week of play with a positive 7-5 league record and a good grasp of the No. 4 seed out of the Greater St. Helens League ahead of districts.

The Spudders squared off against the Washougal Panthers on Thursday, Jan. 30, leading to a 50-41 win, further distancing themselves from the fifth-place Panthers.

On senior night for the Spuds, junior Sava Chanda scored 14 points, while sophomore Josie Hicks racked up 12 points to lead the squad to victory.

With head coach Lauren Hefflin proud of her underclassmen, she expressed the important impacts the seniors have provided this squad.



“Those seniors are just perfect,” Hefflin said. “They’re just incredible leaders, and it’s really fun to have them lead internally because then those younger athletes get to see what that’s like to have that motor of a leader.”

Senior Abigail Vance is the motor of a team leader with her constant communication both on offense and defense.

“She just has the competitive spirit that every coach wishes an athlete had, right?” Hefflin said of Vance. “She’s just down to fight. She’s down to brawl. She wants to go all in at every turn. She’s the one asking me, ‘Can we go back into that press, coach?’ Like she just knows that her and Nora [Martin], they both have that just innate competitive spirit that’s really fun to coach.”

As the Spudders found their way from a 1-8 start to the season to a 7-5 league record and a spot in the post season. They enter their final week with an opportunity to improve to third in the league. They began the week with a matchup at R.A. Long High School on Tuesday, Feb. 4, but results were unavailable at press time. The Spudders cap off the season at 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 6, at Hudson’s Bay High School.