North Penn’s upset bid stolen by Ridley in District 1-AAAA 1st round

The Ridley basketball team celebrates after its win over North Penn in the District 1-AAAA first round on Friday, Feb. 12, 2016. (Anne Neborak/Digital First Media)

The Ridley basketball team celebrates after its win over North Penn in the District 1-AAAA first round on Friday, Feb. 12, 2016. (Anne Neborak/Digital First Media)

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By Tim Hindin

It would be fair to say that the No. 4 seeded Ridley had the pressure on it entering Friday’s District 1-AAAA first-round matchup with No. 29 North Penn.

For the first nine or 10 minutes of the game, Ridley had the look of team with the pressure on it as it scored only four points in the first quarter and spilled into the early going of the second quarter.

“It doesn’t matter how much I tell the team you’re playing a quality team who does a lot of good things,” Ridley coach Mike Snyder said. “You’ve got to come out ready to play and North Penn came out really sharp, really crisp and I didn’t think we did.”

The game came down to the final handful of possessions and the Knights looked to be in control with less than 30 seconds left.

Ridley, though, had some magic in it to escape with the 51-49 win.

“They fought like heck all year,” North Penn coach John Conrad said. “They fought like heck to get into the playoffs and then once we got here I think everybody in our gym believed we could win this game.”

North Penn, however, could not take full advantage of the slow Raiders start as NP managed only 11 first quarter points and could never put any distance between the two teams, which resulted in the Knights actually trailing at halftime.

The fourth quarter of the game was almost a separate entity from the first three quarters. With both teams playing staunch defense through the first three quarters, things started to open up offensively in the fourth.

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