Fairfield Ludlowe Girls Fall to Ridgefield, 63-50

The Fairfield Ludlowe girls basketball team was poised to clinch a state tournament berth Monday, but a slow start  spoiled the Falcons' Senior Night celebration.

After honoring its seven seniors, Ludlowe fell into an early 10-point hole and never recovered, suffering a 63-50 loss to Ridgefield.

Briana Curran scored 20 points and Sarah Nesi added 10 for the Falcons, who dropped to 7-12 and will have to win at McMahon on Wednesday to make states for the first time since 2009.

"We just can't seem to score," Ludlowe coach Sarah Huntington said. "I mean, we actually did score tonight, but then we forgot about defense, so it's one or the other."

Transition defense hurt the Falcons as Ridgefield scored on three back-door layups in the first half. The defensive breakdowns resulted in the Tigers getting to foul line 29 time and making 18 free throws.

Ludlowe, meanwhile, was just 5-of-13 from the line, including 3-of-11 in the first half.

In addition, the Falcons were ice cold from the field at the start of the game, missing their first eight shots,  which allowed Ridgefield to build an 11-1 lead just over four minutes into the contest and a 17-5 advantage after the first quarter.

Andrea Ferrero scored 16 points and Gemma Howard added 13 for the Tigers, who improved to 7-12, keeping their state tourney hopes alive.

"We were really celebrating our seniors and we wanted that to happen, but it was 11-1," Huntington said. "They got some quick looks, made a lot of layups that we didn't make on our end. We didn't get back defensively and they got a lot of open looks."

After Ridgefield opened a 24-11 lead on Howard's follow midway through the first half, the Falcons went to a man-to-man and for while it appeared they might get back into the game.

The Falcons held Ridgefield scoreless for nearly four minutes and pulled within 24-16 on Curran's 3-pointer with 1:15 left in the half.

But a layup by Emily Favorite (11 points) off a turnover with eight seconds left staked Ridgefield to a 26-16 halftime lead and Ludlowe got no closer than nine in the second half.

The Falcons shot just 6-of-26 (23 perfect) in the first half and 19-of-68 (28 percent)  overall.

Ridgefield extended its advantage to 41-28 after three quarters, then broke it open in the fourth, leading by as many as 20 points. Ludlowe made it a bid more respectable by ending the contest with a 13-6 spurt after the Tigers had built a 57-37 cushion.

Katherine Mahder and Caroline Pangallo each added six for the Falcons.

"We should be able to run on teams, but we're not controlling the boards and  because we're not getting rebounds, we can't run on them," Huntington said. 

Despite the disappointing loss, Ludlowe's goal of making the state tournament is still intact and that would represent progress for the program after going 5-11 in Huntington's first season last year.

Ludlowe beat McMahon 53-39 in the Todd Burger tournament in December, so Huntington hopes that will give her team some confidence heading into Wednesday's contest.