Mountain Ridge wins 1st area championship

May 19—FROSTBURG — Mountain Ridge set a number of program marks in 2022-23, winning its first region title, setting a new school record for wins and appearing in its first state championship game.

It added one more first after the season: an area championship.

The area championship is awarded to the team ranked No. 1 in the final area sportswriter poll. The seven-person panel includes Jeff Landes, Kyle Bennett, Jordan Kendall and Alex Rychwalski (Cumberland Times-News); Chapin Jewell (Mineral News-Tribune), Nick Carroll (Hampshire Review) and Trevor King (Garrett County Republican).

Mountain Ridge (35 points) was the unanimous choice receiving all seven first-place votes, followed in the poll by Allegany (25 points), Hampshire (17 points), and Southern and Petersburg, which tied for fourth with 12 points each.

Frankfort was the only other team to receive votes (four).

The area title breaks a string of two straight won by Jon Webster and Petersburg, and the Miners' championship is the first brought back to Allegany County since Fort Hill, coached by Amber Waltz, in 2012.

"It's very exciting for the girls and the community," Mountain Ridge head coach Rob Duncan said. "It's definitely something that we set as a goal at the beginning of the season."

The Miners started the season winning 10 of 11 games, but a three-game losing streak dropped them to a season-low No. 4 in the ninth week of the poll.

The stretch proved vital to Mountain Ridge later in the year, as the Miners went back to the drawing board. It paid off — they won five straight, including a 72-55 triumph of PIAA Final Four team Berlin on Feb. 6.

"We had to look at some things that we were doing and we tried to focus on our defending and rebounding," Duncan said. "Offensively we'd be fine, we were going to put points on the board."

The Mountain Ridge offense became a talking point as the season wore on because through their first 25 games, the Miners were 19-0 when they scored at least 40 points and 0-6 when they didn't.

That trend was finally broken when Mountain Ridge played a masterful defensive performance in the Class 1A state semifinals against Forest Park to win 37-20.

The key to Mountain Ridge's improvement was its discovery of second, third and fourth scoring options throughout the season.

Mountain Ridge knew it had one of the area's best scorers in Sydney Snyder, and she delivered with averages of 17.2 points per game and 5.0 rebounds. Her 58 3-pointers set a new school record, which she set the prior season as a sophomore.

Reghan Sivic stepped into that secondary scoring role down low scoring 11.9 points per game and pulling down a team-high 6.9 boards.

Bayleigh Lamberson (7.4 points) and Rhegan Lamberson (4.3) were consistent options, and Ava Tringler hit key 3-pointers off the bench, including a crucial one against Forest Park.

"That was a process throughout the year, to have the girls believe in themselves to take shots," Duncan said. "As the season moved on, they became more comfortable taking those shots.

"It was never one player that filled that role. Different players did so at different times throughout the season. ... The girls just kind of found a way."

The Final Four game against Forest Park was played without a shot clock because of technical difficulties, and the Miners had experience doing so playing at Frankfort and Keyser in West Virginia and at Shalom, Berlin and Chestnut Ridge in Pennsylvania during the year.

Mountain Ridge made Forest Park look silly, sitting in a zone and baiting Forest Park into attempting and missing a barrage of deep 3-pointers.

Forest Park (19-4), which was the top seed in the state entering the game, defeated Class 4A state runner-up Churchill, 42-40, and 4A semifinalist Western, 47-40, during the season.

Churchill nearly won the state's largest class, falling to Glen Burnie, 43-40.

"Forest Park struggled to shoot the ball against us, and a lot of people have thought that Forest Park wasn't a very quality team, but they were" Duncan said.

Mountain Ridge, a man-to-man team all year, executed a zone to perfection against Forest Park. It was a credit to the film study done by the coaching staff — Duncan, Todd Snyder and Charlie Grove — and the players for implementing it.

"That was probably the game that I'm most proud of," Duncan said. "Every game you put a game-plan in front of the girls, and they executed phenomenally."

Mountain Ridge wasn't able to win the title, falling just short in a 38-33 loss to three-time defending state champion Pikesville at the Xfinity Center in College Park.

Part of the reason the Miners were able to make a deep playoff run, Duncan said, was because of some luck early in the playoffs.

Mountain Ridge hit a low point in a 30-29 loss to Southern at the buzzer, and it was looking like the Miners would have to go back up to Oakland in their playoff opener.

However, Mountain Ridge, which went 16-6 during the regular season, got just the break it needed.

Southern fell to Fairmont Senior in the last week of the regular season to allow the Miners to host the Rams.

Mountain Ridge beat Southern at home 51-48 in the region semis. Then, Fort Hill upset top-seeded Allegany on the other side of the bracket. The Miners advanced to states with a 47-39 victory over the Sentinels.

"Opportunity presented itself, and we took advantage of it," Duncan said.

Their luck ran out when Duncan decided to risk a coin flip with Snow Hill in the state quarterfinals instead of agreeing to a neutral site game in the Baltimore area.

The Miners lost and had to travel nearly 300 miles to the Eastern Shore, but it was all worth it, as they returned to Frostburg with a 75-33 romp.

Duncan also credited the senior leadership Mountain Ridge had in Bayleigh Lamberson and Eliza Duncan, as well as the rebounding and defense of Duncan and Rhegan Lamberson.

The latter's exploits were on full display during the region playoffs when they held All-Area standouts in Carly Wilt of Southern and Carly Bennett of Fort Hill to six and four points, respectively.

Mountain Ridge will miss its two seniors, but it returns more than 80% of its scoring production, headlined by Sydney Snyder and Sivic — who both made the All-Area team.

Alex Rychwalski is a sports reporter at the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @arychwal.