Ravens basketball captures Ravenna Holiday Tournament title

RAVENNA — After the final buzzer of the Ravenna Holiday Tournament, Faith Farris and Mary Laudato were called to the scorers' table to pick up the trophy.

Laudato, a Ravenna senior, seemed almost in disbelief as she walked over:

"This is the first trophy I've won in high school."

To be fair, Laudato has won some medals in girls tennis, which the Ravens happen to be pretty good at, but Wednesday was a thrilling day for a girls basketball program that has struggled in recent years.

After falling by 31 in last year's title game, the Ravens prevailed in Wednesday afternoon's Ravenna Holiday Tournament championship contest, topping Crestwood 48-33.

"It's exciting because last year the tournament didn't really go in our favor, but this year, the first game [against Chaney] was rough, but we've just been improving," Laudato said. "I think that's the best that we've come out."

The start was not so pretty for the Ravens (4-6), who promptly fell behind 9-2 after three 3-pointers by the Red Devils (2-9).

Ravenna's fortunes quickly improved, as it held Crestwood scoreless over the final 4:30 of the first quarter and the final 5:30 of the second, and ultimately scored 40 of the game's next 55 points.

On defense, the Ravens began to do a much better job of pinpointing the Red Devils' shooters, namely sophomore Hannah Ward, who had four 3-pointers, including two of the three that gave Crestwood a 9-2 lead.

On offense, Ravenna was sharp in the middle quarters, hitting 50% of its shots from the field in both the second and third.

After the Ravens rallied within 9-6 at the first-quarter break, sophomore Breena Kainrad helped them surge ahead, starting with a deep jumper that she swished off a crosscourt heave from Miriyah Sandifer. The speedy Sandifer, a freshman, then added a fast-break finish to draw within one and another crosscourt pass to Kainrad for a 3 to give Ravenna its first lead.

"She wasn't originally a guard and last year they kind of transformed her out to one," Ravens coach Courtney O'Donnell said of Kainrad. "So we've definitely been highlighting that and kind of, 'Hey you can shoot, kid, like keep shooting, shooters shoot,' so just kind of emphasizing that."

That first Ravenna lead didn't last long, as Ward answered with her third 3-pointer of the afternoon, from well beyond the 3-point line, but the Ravens responded with 12 straight points to end the first half.

After Laudato (10 points, 9 boards, 4 blocks) recaptured the lead for Ravenna with a bucket in the paint, senior sharpshooter Kyla Carney, with defenders forced to flock toward a red-hot Kainrad, added a 3-pointer.

"I think it was like trying to get the ball to the hot hand, the person that's making the shots," Ravens junior forward Faith Farris said. "We kind of focused more on that. We were like, 'Get it to Breena, get it to Kyla. Oh, like Mary's open, get it to Mary.'"

Farris, who led Ravenna in points (13) and rebounds (15) Wednesday, added a driving bank off a sharp shot fake, Abigail Schofield knocked down a pair of free throws and Sandifer drained a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give the Ravens an 11-point halftime lead (27-16).

The numbers were remarkable.

After a 3-for-14 first quarter (0-for-3 from deep) with three turnovers, the Ravens went 8-of-16 from the field (3-of-4 from deep) with a single turnover in a 21-point second quarter.

"I think it was more like slowing down and looking in for our passes because we have the tendency to rush a lot of stuff, but I think toward the beginning, we kind of slowed down," Farris said. "The shots were in our favor. We were making a lot of shots and just looking in and getting in those gaps that were open."

And then Ravenna did it all over again after halftime.

While the Ravens had far more turnovers in the third, they continued to bury shots, knocking down 6-of-12 from the field to build an 18-point lead (42-24) after three quarters.

That included a jaw-dropping play by Laudato, after Crestwood had snagged a defensive rebound, with the Ravenna senior ripping the ball away and knocking down a layup in what seemed like an instant.

"I mean it's my senior year, so I just want to make the most of it," Laudato said. "I also have been working out, so that helps."

All told, Farris and Laudato accounted for 13 of the Ravens' 15 third-quarter points, dominating the glass.

"Once we kind of got the motor going with them, it was, 'Hey, we're playing an inside-out game,'" O'Donnell said. "Like I told them, 'We're looking in, we're looking in.' I think my guards did a really good job looking for them down there."

The Red Devils, to their credit, weren't done.

Riding an aggressive press, Crestwood started the fourth on a 9-0 run, starting with Ward's fourth 3-pointer, followed by a Maddie Dustman baseline jumper.

Senior Kelsey Downs (12 points, nine rebounds, 6-of-6 from the field) added a pair of buckets to get within single digits (42-33) midway through the quarter.

The Red Devils went cold from there, however, and Laudato helped seal that first trophy with a couple of blocks and a driving bank to push the Ravens' lead back to double digits with 1:51 remaining.

"I think it's definitely good footing to move forward, kind of the starting block," O'Donnell said. "So we're excited. We're excited for it and definitely there's positivity with it."

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Ravens basketball captures Ravenna Holiday Tournament title