Brett Rippy scored a game-high 22 points and made four-of-five three pointers to lead Allen County-Scottsville to its first season-opening win since Nov. 29, 2011, as it cruised to a 63-30 victory at South Warren on Tuesday evening.
The Patriots (1-0) — who held the Spartans (0-1) to just 13 points in the second half — shot 65.5 percent from the field (19-of-29) on the night and forced 12 turnovers. Along with Rippy’s big outing, Cayden Ross finished with 13 points in coach Nick Chaykowsky’s debut as the Patriots’ head coach.
“I felt like we needed to dictate how the game was played,” Chaykowsky said following his team’s win. “We needed to be patient and move the ball inside. I saw multiple times where the ball went inside and then back out but we were successful on those opportunities. Our guard play was solid, our senior leadership was solid and overall our intensity from horn to horn was tremendous.
“Defensively, we played a tremendous game.”
Along with limiting South Warren to the 13 second half points — including just five in the third quarter — Allen County-Scottsville forced the Spartans to make just 10-of-39 shots on the night, a percentage of 26. The Patriots won the rebounding battle, 27-20, and made eight threes to the Spartans’ four, as half of the Patriots’ came courtesy of Rippy.
“Brett Rippy is a solid player — he’s got a lot to learn because he’s young, but he has a lot of nice tools,” said Chaykowsky of his guard. “He’s smart, he wants to get better and he’s got winning in his blood.”
Senior writer Tyler Mansfield can be reached at mansfield.sportingtimes@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @_TylerMansfield.
