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Rams' Big Rally Won't Be Forgotten

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By LEE DIEKEMPER

Tribune correspondent

Published: January 8, 2009

NEW PORT RICHEY - Whatever Ridgewood High's girls basketball team does the rest of the season, the Rams players may never forget what happened Saturday in the championship game of the Ashley Morrison Memorial Tournament.

Trailing 19-0 in the second quarter, the Rams rallied to win their first Morrison tournament title with a 36-35 win against Countryside.

In most cases, a team trailing by nearly 20 points in the second quarter would throw in the towel. Sure, Rams coach Greg Bollinger was upset enough to bench his top two players, senior twin sisters guards Aleesa and Daylyn Williamson, but not enough to scrap his entire style of play.

"I think at halftime it wasn't about what we were doing, it was that what we were doing we were not doing well," Bollinger said. "At halftime some of the girls wanted to play a zone. I said, 'No, we'll play man. We just have to play it better.'

"I think we played harder with more intensity in the second half. We tried to get it under 10 in the third quarter so we could make a run in the fourth."

Mission accomplished.

One of the things Bollinger did was put the Williamson twins back in, having Aleesa play on top of the key with Daylyn down low. It worked as Aleesa burned Countryside with eight consecutive points in the fourth to give the Rams the lead.

"We weren't ready for the full-court press," Aleesa Williamson said.

In the second half, the Rams were more than ready.

STILL UNDEFEATED: When 6-foot-2 center Janelle Mills went down with a wrist injury nearly a month ago, Dec. 10, not even Wesley Chapel coach Karim Nohra in his wildest dreams expected to start the new calendar year undefeated.

Yet the Wildcats are just that as Wesley Chapel (13-0) and the rest of Pasco County's girls basketball teams begin their stretch run to the postseason.

"It's been a blessing," Nohra said of the record.

But it's been a blessing in a lot of ways. Of course Nohra and his players are happy to still have an unblemished record. But Nohra is beginning to learn a lot about his team, partially as a result of losing Mills who, in a best-case scenario, may return for the final week of the regular season, which would be the final week of the month.
Nohra also has found out his players are quite resilient. First, Nohra, in his first year as the Wildcats coach, still insists his players are still learning his coaching strategies. Now they're learning how to play through adversity.

"I am a realist: If you lose a player who is averaging double-digit points and double-digit rebounds a game, you'd have to think that you'd get tripped up," Nohra said. "It's hard to fathom being undefeated without her."

The Wildcats will certainly be tested in their next three games - all at home - beginning tonight hosting Academy of The Holy Names followed by Mitchell on Friday and Jan. 14 against Land O' Lakes.

"I'm extremely happy with the way the girls have been playing," Nohra said.

Correspondent Lee Diekemper can be reached at pascocountysports@gmail.com.

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