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By Jeff Oliver

Published: Friday, January 18, 2013, 12:01 a.m.
Updated: Friday, January 18, 2013

Belle Vernon Area and Ringgold played a sloppy Section 4 AAA contest Thursday night, with the Lady Leps coming away with a 48-29 win.

BVA (9-4, 5-2) was plagued by turnovers most of the game, committing 25 for the night. And the Lady Rams (6-8, 3-4) had their usual issues trying to make shots.

“It was a sloppy game,” admitted BVA coach Lisa Fairman. “I almost pulled my hair out because of the way we were throwing the ball out of bounds, especially in the first half.”

“We can't make a shot. It's been our problem all year,” said Ringgold coach Nick Mandich. “We hustle and we work to get open. We just can't make shots. And tonight, I was also disappointed with our rebounding, too.”

BVA went on an 11-2 run in the first quarter to take an early 11-4 lead and Ringgold got no closer than six points the rest of the night.

The Lady Leps led 22-13 at halftime, even though leading scorer Jessica Slagus went to the bench with two fouls two minutes into the second quarter and had just two points.

BVA broke the game open with an offensive explosion by Jessica Slagus and her sister, Kaitlyn, in the second half.

Jessica Slagus scored a basket at the third quarter buzzer to make it 31-19 and then she (six) and Kaitlyn (seven) combined to score 13 points in the first 4:09 of the fourth quarter to make it 44-23.

“One thing I thought we did well was play good defense,” Fairman said. “Any time you hold a team to 29 points, you are playing defense. I thought the girls hustled on defense for sure.”

Kaitlyn Slagus had 15 points and nine rebounds for BVA, while Jessica Slagus had 10 points and 11 rebounds. Teammate Phaedra DeWitt had 12 points, including three 3-pointers.

Ringgold was led by Josie Schmidt and Bailey Cooper with 10 points each.

GAME NOTES: The game featured a pair of 6-foot sisters as BVA had Jessica Slagus (6-1) and Kaitlyn Slagus (6-2) while Ringgold countered with Josie Schmidt (6-2) and Marlena Schmidt (6-3) ... Two of DeWitt's three-pointers banked in ... Jessica Slagus has 948 career points ... BVA hosts Mt. Pleasant tonight while Ringgold goes to Waynesburg Monday.

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