ABERDEEN — Aberdeen will have to fight its way out of the consolation bracket after dropping a 61-40 game to Ridgefield at home in the first round of the 2A District IV Tournament on Tuesday.
Neither team got off to a hot start offensively, with the Spudders holding on to an 11-8 lead after one quarter of play.
Aberdeen looked like it was in good position to take the momentum and the lead early in the second quarter when Javier Bojorge was fouled while hitting a layup and completed the and-1 opportunity. Bojorge’s free throw tied the game at 11 one minute into the second quarter, but Ridgefield responded by going on a 10-2 run over three minutes as the Spudders began to pull away.
Aberdeen’s Derrell Shale battles for a rebound with Ridgefield’s Carson Knight in the third quarter on Tuesday night. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)
Aberdeen head coach Mark Buckman said his team didn’t start the game with enough energy.
“I’m not sure what our mindset was coming into the game, but there is not doubt we started off super flat,” he said. “That wasn’t the type of intensity you have to bring in a playoff basketball game.”
Aberdeen has relied on the 3-point shot a lot this season, but it was Ridgefield that converted on its 3-pointers in the first half.
The Spudders got three 3-pointers from Josh Mansur in the first half, who finished with a game-high 22 points.
Aberdeen went into the halftime break down 27-17 and struggled to cut into the gap in the second half.
Despite trailing by double digits for most of the final 16 minutes of play, the Bobcats didn’t look to the 3-point shot to make up the deficit. Aberdeen averaged nearly 15 3-point attempts a game, but only went 1-for-10 from deep on Tuesday night.
Buckman said Aberdeen needed to do a better job finishing on layups and close-range shots in order to open up looks around the perimeter.
“They made it tough on us to get easy buckets. Ridgefield stepped up its play and our level of execution wasn’t great,” he said. “But we need to be a team that attacks the rim hard and puts pressure on the referees to call fouls. We didn’t attack the rim hard. We were very tentative at times and we didn’t get good looks in the half court.”
Aberdeen continued to look for shots at the rim with limited success. Ben Dublanko was one of the few Bobcats to get anything going offensively, leading Aberdeen with 16 points, nine of those on free throws when Dublanko drew contact on drives to the hoop.
Aberdeen’s Ben Dublanko drives to the lane in the first quarter against Ridgefield. Dublanko led the Bobcats with 16 points in a 61-40 loss to the Spudders on Tuesday. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)
Aberdeen couldn’t mount a second-half comeback and was outscored in every quarter of the game.
Buckman wasn’t sure what caused his team to come into Tuesday’s game with low energy, but he didn’t want to blame the alterations to the schedule for the loss.
“I do not want to use that as an excuse. I think, if anything, it’s a good opportunity to learn and be able to adapt to any situation because that’s life.”
Aberdeen’s postseason will continue with a loser-out game against WF West at 5 p.m. on Thursday in Tumwater.
The Bobcats split a pair of games with the Bearcats in the regular season, losing the first meeting 75-63 and winning the second meeting 62-53.
Aberdeen won’t have too much time to dwell on its most recent loss, which may be a good thing as Buckman wants his team to put the Ridgefield game in the rear-view mirror.
“We want our guys to put this one behind them,” he said. “We need to learn from this and get ready for the next challenge,” he said.
Ridgefield 11 16 14 20 – 61
Aberdeen 8 9 11 12 – 40
Top Players: Aberdeen – Dublanko (16 pts., 4 ast., 3 stl.), Bojorge (10 pts.), Derrell Shale (8 pts.); Ridgefield – Mansur (22 pts.), Stefan Vossenkuhl (17 pts.).
