The River Forest Ingots hosted the Hammond Wildcats in a non-conference game at home. Ranked 317th in the state, the Ingots were 5-9 overall going into tonight’s matchup, while the Wildcats had gone 0-5 overall and are ranked 404th in state.
The Ingots jumped out to an early lead, staying in front of the Wildcats with a score of 10-3 after the first quarter. River Forest maintained their lead throughout the game, ending with a final score of 46-37. Though Hammond trailed 42-21 at the end of the third quarter, they managed to close the gap a bit in the final moments of the game.
Eundee Kyles, head coach for the Wildcats, was nonetheless proud of her team’s performance in the match.
“I saw a lot of hustle,” said Kyles. “I saw a lot of progress here from these girls tonight. They came a long way from where we started this season.”
Kyles said that her team is predominantly made of younger players, some of which were playing for the very first time in tonight’s game.
“They hustled. They moved to the ball much better this time, got the rebound more, and I’m very proud of how they played here tonight. We may not have gotten the win here tonight, but I’m very proud of the way they hustled and played ball tonight. We may not have won, but they didn’t quit.”
Hammond saw consistency at play, especially from #11 Ashanti Wilson who hit two 2-pointers in the third quarter, and followed-up with a three-pointer in the last quarter. Also strong was #32 Aniyah Henry who nailed many 2-pointers in the second, third, and last quarter of the game.
On the Ingots side, they saw standout performance from #14 Amya Hall who scored two 2-pointers and one 3-pointer in the third quarter, #20 Aiyanie Troutman who had two 2-pointers in the first quarter, and #21 Madison Whitmore who added a 2-pointer and a 3-pointer in the second quarter.
River Forest will look forward to hosting Whiting in a conference game this Saturday at 4 p.m., while the Wildcats will again board the bus for a short ride out to meet Bowman Academy in Gary on Wednesday at 6 p.m.