AHOSKIE – Still perfect.

The Ridgecroft School girl’s basketball team upped their Tarheel Independent Conference record to 4-0 Friday night with a 51-18 win over rival Northeast Academy.

Hennie Larabee paced the Lady Rams with 12 points while Miller Bryant and Sara Hackney had 11 each. Brice Harrison and Nikki Smith had eight and four points, respectively, and each had six rebounds.

Lauren Colson took rebounding honors with seven while chipping in five points.

Ashtyn Livermon led the Lady Eagles with eight points while Kaylen Rose and Hannah Roye had four points each and Ivey Little added two.

Ridgecroft rises to 9-2 overall while Northeast falls to 3-5 and suffers their first conference loss of the season to go to 2-1 in the TIC.

“The girls ran the floor well,” said Ridgecroft coach Susan Oliver. “They played together and we had great ball movement; something we’ve been working hard on in practice.”

The Lady Rams wasted little time establishing their offense in the first quarter, racing out to a 12-4 lead after the first eight minutes thanks to the very quick Larabee.  She scored on fast break layups thanks to Ridgecroft’s pesky pressure defense and was able to get off soft jump shots thanks to screens.

Things worked just as well for the home team in the second quarter, where Ridgecroft topped the visitors with 11 more points and continued to stifle the Lady Eagles thanks to strong rebounding on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor.  Colson often muscled her way through to grab key caroms.

Ridgecroft led it 23-8 at the halftime break.

In the third quarter Oliver slowed the pace significantly and their half-court offense was just as effective as their scoring in transition and they still came up one point shy of a dozen for the frame.

Northeast scored early, but were held down until the final two minutes when Livermon got off a jump shot just inside the three-point line and later on a layup.

Larabee continued to be the sparkplug. Bryant and Hackney, meanwhile, assisted the barrage for Ridgecroft with their scoring output reaching eight and six points, respectively, as the Lady Rams had upped their lead to 20 points at 34-14.

In the fourth quarter Ridgecroft really went for the takedown, opening the period with a 12-2 run.  Hackney got an early jump shot and after Northeast answered she got another bucket-and-one underneath to push the Lady Rams’ bulge to 39-16 and finish her scoring for the night.

The run continued with Larabee blasting in a three-point basket followed by a short jumper from Bryant and another from Harrison to push the lead to 30 points before Northeast stopped the bleeding thanks to a pair of free throws.

Smith came in to get four of Ridgecroft’s last five points of the night to make for the final score.

“We just weren’t ready for the game,” said Northeast coach Joella Brown. “Mentally we weren’t ready and we just never jelled and got out after it.

“We can’t play that poorly and expect to win,” she added. “We just shot ourselves in the foot that many times.”

“We came off our break playing well against Albemarle,” said Oliver.  “And I’m just as pleased with their effort tonight.”