NEW CASTLE, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Alivia Huffman peered up at the scoreboard, saw the ugly numbers looming over her and sighed.
This was not Redbank Valley girls basketball.
The Bulldogs were committing turnovers. Missing layups. Getting called for fouls and leaving wide open shots for Ellwood City to knock down.
Huffman, though, wasn’t about to panic down 23-8 early. Neither were her teammates.
“We believe in each other,” Huffman said.
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That belief allowed Redbank Valley to chip away at that deficit. Down to eight at the half. Trimmed to four in the first minute of the fourth. Finally, Caylen Rearick hit a 3-pointer to tie it and Katie Davis added a conventional 3-point play 30 seconds later to give the Bulldogs their first lead, 45-42, midway through the fourth.
It stood in a 52-45 win over Ellwood City at the Shenango Christmas Tournament on Wednesday night.
“We have a good feeling we can turn things around,” Huffman said. “Our team is well put together.”
Huffman scored a game-high 16 points and also had 11 rebounds.
During pregame warmups, she came out to the Redbank Valley bench shaking her head.
She felt off, she said.
“Yeah, I felt out of it, but I worked my way out of it,” Huffman said. “When that happens, I’m confident enough in my teammates that we’re eventually going to come together as a team and come back.”
That feeling carried over to the team. Redbank Valley hasn’t played a game in a week and the rust showed early. The Bulldogs shot just 20 percent from the field in the first half.
That allowed Ellwood City to race out to an early advantage.
“We knew once we settled down and started playing our style of basketball … we would be fine,” said Redbank Valley coach Chris Edmonds. “We just pushed a little bit in the first quarter and that put us in a hole.”
Madison Foringer also helped Redbank Valley crawl out of it.
She scored eight of her 14 points in the third quarter and also had 15 rebounds.
Rearick added nine for the Bulldogs. Rearick, though, spent long stretches of the game on the bench in foul trouble.
Still, the junior hit two big 3-pointers in the second half.
“Caylen put herself in trouble,” Edmonds said. “We always talk about foul trouble, not only on our team, but on the other team. She got in foul trouble tonight, but she’s a shooter and just like any shooter, you give them the opportunity, they’re going to hit one.”
Davis also got an opportunity off the bench and seized it, giving Redbank good minutes.
“To be honest with you, Katie got overlooked the first couple of games with the rotations and so forth,” Edmonds said. “Her and I had a discussion last night at practice and I told her that she needed to step up whenever she got her minutes. She did what I asked to to and that was so great for Katie.”
It was also a good for Huffman and the team to show the ability to bounce back.
Huffman had just six points in the first half and had just as many turnovers, some on baseball passes down the court that were ill-advised.
But Redbank Valley likes to push the ball and the Bulldogs came out with more intensity to start the third quarter.
Smarter, too.
“We always talk that the first three minutes of the second half are our minutes,” Edmonds said. “That’s where we like to create the separation or let the other team know that we’re ready to play the second half of the game. I think we did that today.”
Kyla Servick led Ellwood City (1-5) with 14 points.
Freshman Mylee Harmon also scored seven points for Redbank Valley (6-0), which will square off against host Shenango in the championship game Thursday at 7 p.m.
Huffman liked the the view of the scoreboard much better when this game was over.
“I think this shows who we are,” Huffman said.
Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.
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