Foster, Ridley rip Conestoga for title

NEWTOWN SQUARE >> Most times, practice makes perfect on the basketball court for Brett Foster.

But on the instance that the Ridley guard got closest to the rim Monday night at Marple Newtown, he was uncharacteristically off-balance.

“I was too close under the net, so I was kind of falling back,” Foster said, the product of his trip up the ladder neatly snipped and strung around his neck. “So I had to grab the rim to and lean back to cut it.”

Just about every other voyage to the hoop that Foster endeavored in Ridley’s 62-38 demolition of Conestoga in the Central League Championship Game went more smoothly in a tour de force showing to cap a perfect regular season in the league with a second straight championship.

Foster scored 23 points, and Julian Wing added 17, but the ease and comfort with which they glided by the Pioneers was something to behold, backing up a 16-0 regular-season blitz of the field to improve to 22-1 before Friday’s District One Class AAAA opener. The Raiders are the fourth seed and host No. 29 North Penn.

Foster was the architect Monday. He needed just 16 shot attempts to tally his points, puzzlingly without the benefit of a trip to the line despite absorbing plenty of contact around the rim. He hit 10 of his shots, including 3-for-5 from 3-point range on a night that Ridley knocked down five of 12 attempts from deep.

The East Stroudsburg commit also corralled eight rebounds, many long boards from Conestoga’s ghastly 1-for-17 shooting from 3-point land. He equaled Wing’s three steals to lead the team and dished six assists, his pinpoint dimes the oil in Ridley’s unstoppable offensive machine. Ryan Bollinger hit a pair of third-quarter 3-pointers en route to 12 points, helping Ridley methodically pull away.

Ridley celebrating like they’ve practiced it before. pic.twitter.com/3GbhHL8Ec7

— Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) February 9, 2016

But the real impact came on the defensive end, where Conestoga (17-7) failed to establish any semblance of a rhythm.

Again, cue Foster, who put the clamps on Darryl Caldwell.

Conestoga’s 1,000-point scorer endured a rough night, scoring as pedestrian an 18 points as you’re likely to see. He shot 5-for-19 from the field and 0-for-6 from 3-point range, symptomatic of the Pioneers’ general satisfaction with jump shots that weren’t hitting, though that was caused in part by the dogged closing out on shooters by the Green Raiders and Foster in particular.

“He’s a great guard,” Foster said of Caldwell. “We always go at it when we played each other. I have so much respect for him and Conestoga.”

“I did say to him, you’re going to have a tough defensive assignment,” Ridley coach Mike Snyder said. “You’re going to be getting screened a lot, you’ve got to fight through it, do all the things we practiced, going over and under in different situations. He had a challenge on the defensive end. … He kept battling.”

The supporting cast was also absence for Stoga. Andrew Larkin scored seven points and Angus Mayock had six, all in the first half. MJ Lezanic had five points, but cold-shooting Caldwell accounted for 13 of Stoga’s 19 second-half points.

Whatever the records said, the psychological battle wasn’t as clear-cut. Recall that last year, Conestoga romped through the regular season at 16-0, beating Ridley twice and garnering the No. 1 districts seed. But Ridley steamrolled into the playoffs and dominated them in the final, 70-64.

The lessons that proved so helpful for Ridley last year were rehashed this year, but with the moral diametrically reversed.

“It was mentioned a couple of times through the week that it was reversed roles, that they were on top and now we’re on top, same scenario,” Bollinger said. “So once we got into the game, it’s like, you’ve got to forget everything. Sixteen doesn’t mean anything. It’s one game, you’ve got to play your hardest.”

“We told them, the shoe’s on the other foot this year,” Snyder said. “Being 16-0, that 17th game, I said, was going to be a hard one. That’s the toughest one. We’re not out here trying to defend our 16-0 record. We’re out here to play and attack. Forget what your record is.”

Forget Ridley did, from the opening whistle. Foster outscored Conestoga in the first quarter, 7-6, as Ridley held a 14-6 edge as the Pioneers misfired on seven 3-point attempts. Then came an 8-2 spurt in the second quarter when Ridley got its sizeable student contingent to its most frenzied, including a step-back jumper from Wing after making a defender fall down.

Even when Conestoga looked to crawl back into the game, Foster’s six assists after halftime and the tremendous ball movement spurred by Wing’s superb passing led to easy buckets. That included a 6-0 fourth-quarter spurt all on transition lay-ins off smart bounces passes that led to the emptying of the benches and the flying of the white flag.

That full-team artistry garnered another addition to the trophy case … at least, eventually.

“It’s whoever gets it,” Foster said of his new nylon accessory as he and other posed for pictures. “But I’m taking that jawn home, though.”