City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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After establishing himself as a 3-point shooting threat last year, Ridley’s Ryan Bollinger is determined to show he can do more than just bomb away from beyond the arc. Against Conestoga in a big early Central League matchup on Tuesday night, the 6-1 senior attacked the rim at every opportunity for the first three quarters, helpling take pressure off the Green Raiders’ star guard, Brett Foster.

When push came to shove, though, Bollinger’s biggest shot of the night was an old standby. After Ridley’s eight-point halftime lead turned into a Conestoga lead late in the third quarter, Bollinger’s triple from the right wing less than three minutes into the fourth sparked the home team, who ran away to a 55-38 victory to continue an undefeated start to the season.

“First I caught it and I was open, I thought I was going to shoot it,” Bollinger said of his big-time 3-pointer, which first required him to wait on a fervent close-out by a ‘Stoga defender. “If they didn’t fly by me I would have driven it or kicked it, but I happened to be open and made the shot.”

The win moves Ridley to 5-0 on the season, including a 3-0 mark in Central League play. This one’s certainly the biggest yet, considering it came over the team that the Green Raiders beat in last year’s Central League championship, a game in which Bollinger hit six huge foul shots to ice the game and the school’s first league title since 2008.

“To me, they’re our rivals,” Bollinger said. “I want to beat every single team in the Central League but they’re the number one contenders up with us, and I want to beat them as much as anybody.”

Bollinger’s 3-pointer with 5:25 left made it a 39-33 ballgame, capping an 8-2 spurt that broke the final tie of the evening. After a pair of foul shots by Conestoga’s Darryl Caldwell, the final two of his 19 points, Ridley scored the next 10; a dagger 3-pointer by Julian Wing came from the left corner with 2:28 remaining, giving Ridley a 12-point advantage.

It was a sudden burst to blow open a game that had been played at a snail’s pace in the first half, which ended with Ridley up 18-10. And Conestoga (3-2, 2-1 Central) owned the third quarter, which featured a 9-0 run by the Pioneers that even gave them a brief two-point lead, their only advantage of the game.

“We had talked as a team about certain details we needed to do on the defensive end,” Conestoga coach Mike Troy said. “We did them in the third quarter, we didn’t do them in the fourth quarter and as a result Ridley was able to get to the bucket.”

Bollinger finished with 10 points and eight rebounds, trailing Wing (17 points, 11 rebounds) in on the glass plus Foster (15 points) in the scoring column. But with Foster limited to five points through three quarters, it was Bollinger’s aggressiveness with the basketball that helped open things up for the rest of the offense.

“Coming into this year, I know that I had to be more aggressive because everybody knows I’m a shooter now, so I’ve got to do other things than shoot,” he said. “It’s part of my role as a senior, have to be more aggressive and take charge.”

As his confidence improves, so does the likelihood he'll be playing college basketball; Bollinger mentioned he was being recruited by both Cabrini and Neumann, but was leaning towards applying to the latter and joining JIm Rullo's squad in the CSAC.

"I’ve been thinking more about it, and I really want to now," he said. "When I was a sophomore, going into junior year, I was still improving a lot. Last year I had a breakout year and I realized if I keep working, I’ll have a chance to do so and this year it’s going good so far and I think I can keep up with those guys.”

Foster finally took over in the fourth quarter, scoring on several tough drives to help Ridley create separation and then run away from Conestoga.

Wing's second 3-pointer of the half--his first, a minute before Bollinger's, was from a good four feet beyond the arc--capped an 8-0 run, and then the Green Raiders had another one of those to close out the game, helped out by Foster's seventh assist of the evening.

“Get (Foster) in transition or semi-transition, he’s a tough guard and he can kick it out to some shooters and that always helps," Snyder said. "He creates problems and our shooters can create problems...the more wide-open (the game) is, the better off we’re going to be.”