River Ridge girls beat Potosi/Cassville 60-25

By A.J. Gates

River Ridge alumni Veronica Zinkle and Amber Patterson faced off against each other for the first time as coaches last Thursday night, where Zinkle’s Timberwolves defeated Patterson’s Chieftains, 60-25, in Six Rivers West girls basketball action.

Zinkle, a 2015 graduate of River Ridge, is in her fourth season as coach of the Timberwolves, who improved to 3-2 in league play and 10-4 overall with Thursday night’s victory.

Patterson, a 2016 graduate of River Ridge, is in her first season as head coach at Potosi/Cassville, who fell to 0-4 in league play and 2-10 overall with Thursday night’s loss.

The Timberwolves were led by senior Shayna Graf, who scored a game-high 16 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the floor and 4-of-7 from the free throw line. She also pulled down a team-high seven rebounds to go along with two assists and a team-high four steals.

Junior point guard Melissa Sletten chipped in 12 points, going 4-of-6 from beyond the 3-point arc, while also dishing out a team-high five assists. Junior Mandi Wehrle and freshman Erin Adrian each finished with 11 points and seven rebounds, Wehrle going 3-of-9 from downtown and Adrian 5-of-6 from the charity stripe.

As a team, the Timberwolves made 21-of-50 (42 percent) total shot attempts, including 11-of-29 (38 percent) from long range. They were 10-of-15 (66.6 percent) from the free throw line and came away with 12 steals.

The Timberwolves will travel to Belmont (10-4 overall, 3-1 in the Six Rivers West) on Thursday, Jan. 18 to take on the Braves in an important conference game.