Smink paves way as Archbishop Ryan tops Lansdale Catholic

LANSDALE >> Despite a subpar first half, the Lansdale Catholic girls basketball team trailed by just four when it inbounded the ball to start the third quarter against Archbishop Ryan.

But the Crusaders just had no answer for Ryan’s Ashley Smink in the second half. The senior scored 18 points, all after intermission as she led the Ragdolls to a 53-45 win Friday night on LC’s floor.

Smink was a big reason for LC’s long night, creating seven steals to go with her offensive showing. In total, LC committed 25 turnovers, several of them coming at critical points late in the game.

“Seeing that they were coming back and it was getting in some of my teammate’s heads, I had to step up as a senior and try to get the win,” Smink said.

LC was undone by the turnovers and empty possessions late in the game when it had clawed back into the game.

“The first quarter, the first few possessions against their press, we turned the ball over and when we don’t get shots,” LC coach Joe Mack Jr. said. “It’s a hard way to play and a hard way to try and win a game.”

The Crusaders’ main issues in the first half came from ball security, as they committed 14 turnovers to just five from the Ragdolls. LC started the game with four straight turnovers and trailed 5-1 after a trey by Emily Ostaszewski with 4:36 left in the opening frame.

Ryan had its defensive sights set firmly on high-scoring sophomore Lauren Crim, denying her clean passes and closing out quickly if she did touch the ball. All four of Crim’s first-half points came at the foul line and three Crusaders finished the half with the same amount of points.

LC took its first lead on a hustle play by junior Laura Vetter in the first quarter when the guard chased down a missed 3-pointer, drove back into the lane and absorbed contact. She hit the foul shot for the three-point play and an 8-7 lead. The Crusaders were able to push it up to 10-7 before five straight from Ryan’s Megan McLaughlin put the visitors back in front 12-10.

“Mike (McCusker), he’s a really good coach and he scouts well, so he knows Lauren,” Mack said. “They ran a lot of people at her. We tried to get the ball inside to open up the outside but again, I thought a lot of our passes to the post or outside were bad passes and we couldn’t get anything set offensively.”

Ryan’s passing was solid for the most part in the first half, with both made 3s assisted and a couple of easy baskets coming on laser passes on sharp cuts. LC cut the lead down to 18-17 on a pair of Brady Wassel free throws, but the Ragdolls extended the lead back out when Shannon Glenn rebounded and put back a missed foul shot for a 21-17 lead at the break.

Smink started to feel it in the third quarter, scoring the first four points of the quarter for Ryan after LC cut the lead to two. The two buckets were part of a 9-3 run that put the Ragdolls ahead 30-22 with 4:24 left in the third.

Ryan closed the quarter on a 6-3 run over the final 3:43 with Smink supplying a lay-up and a 3-pointer to close out the frame. Smink then split a pair of foul shots to open the fourth, giving Ryan a 12-point lead with 7:36 to go.

“Ashley Smink is a really good player and it seemed when we would get a bucket, we couldn’t get a stop and she had some really big plays down the stretch for them,” Mack said. “She played a complete game, she’s a senior and in the second half did very well for Ryan.”

Mack said one quality about his group is that it won’t quit and the Crusaders did start to battle back. A banked 3 by Vetter followed by a steal and layup from Abby Ward cut the lead down to 38-34 with 6:13 left. The Crusaders again got it to 40-36, but couldn’t make the most of their next few possessions.

With Ryan missing three straight foul shots, the Crusaders had two empty possessions then three straight turnovers as Ryan got another hoop before Crim completed a 3-point play to make it 42-39 with 2:01 left.

“This is our first game where we started playing team basketball,” Smink said. “We played as a team, made the extra pass and stayed positive.”

Ostaszewski and Smink hit four straight foul shots to bookend a missed 3 by Crim on a good look as Ryan regained some space at 46-39. Brady Wassel then splashed a trey to cut it back to four, but Smink responded with a driving layup then made four straight pressure foul shots.

“I don’t really think about it because I practice them a lot,” Smink said. “This is a huge win, this could help us go to states and this could make or break us, we’re pretty high up in the standings.”

Ward did hit a 3-pointer late, but by then the Ragdolls were up 53-42 as they closed out the win.

“We make mistakes but they always do fight,” Mack said. “We kept getting stops but at that point of the game, we have to get something on offense and we couldn’t do it.”