JEFF JORDAN, Special to The Post
Posted: Saturday, March 13, 2010 7:35 pm

Another gold ball for the trophy case at Riverdale could create a space problem with all those football trophies and that softball state championship from last spring.

Oh well, I’m sure Riverdale Principal Tom Nolan, can take care of it: he’s done it before.

For those that are counting, the Riverdale girls' basketball team, 30–2 and winners of 27 straight, are state champions again with their Saturday night 59–42 win over a 34–2 Morristown West squad.

RHS won in 2007 over Memphis Northside and now has an 8–1 record in state tournament play.

For Riverdale Coach Hillary Hodges, this was a dream come true. She thought she would have a chance at a state title at RHS but likely not this soon with a freshmen, a sophomore and a junior in the starting lineup.

I’m certain the other region coaches will be delighted to find out that Hodges brings back three starters next season along with freshman, and really a sixth starter, Olivia Jones.

Hodges has a two-year record of 57 – 8 at the Riverdale helm and seems to enjoy the job. She also gets a lot of help from assistant coaches Nicole Broadway, Shiloh Edging and John Wild.

It was definitely a Riverdale night with the crowd decked out in red and gold and VERY supportive. We got the Riverdale chop many times and lots of noise from all over a crowded Murphy Center.

The pace of the game was a bit unique for RHS as they fell behind early and trailed 14-11 at the first quarter break.

By halftime RHS had righted the teepee, taken a 23–20 lead into the locker room, made some adjustments, played shut down defense for nearly the first four minutes of the second half and took at 1- point lead at the end on the third quarter, 39–29.

After that, Morristown West never got closer than eight. RHS made two more turnovers than West but blocked three shots to make up for it and again won the rebound battle, this time by a 40-32 margin.

Seven girls scored again just like the first two tournament games. Riverdale shot the ball at a 38 percent clip which is decent but the RHS defense held West to 28 percent shooting for the game.

If you were there, and you thought the RHS defense stepped it up after the half, you were right. Morristown shot a paltry 24% after halftime. Although the Lady Trojans hit 9 of 9 free throws, RHS actually hit more, connecting on 21 of 27.

The All Tournament team had three RHS members, Jaclissa Haislip, Tyisha Petty and Shacobia Barbee.

The committee in a no-brainer decision named Shacobia Barbee the
MVP of the tournament. Her stats were truly outstanding – 87 points for the 3 games (29 point avg.) and 48 rebounds. That, my friends is outstanding! Barbee joins three other Rutherford County players as State Tournament MVPs; Cindy Jennings of Riverdale in 1979, Kim Webb of Smyrna in 1982 and Riverdale’s Anne Marie Lanning in 2007.

Score by quarters 1 2 3 4 Total

Morristown West 14 6 9 13 42
Riverdale 11 12 16 20 59

Scoring: M.West : Megan Fanney – 14, Taylor Hall – 10, Kelley Smith – 7, Allison Jones – 5, Sidney Goins - 3, Lindsey Wild – 3

Three point baskets - Wild (1-1) Goins (1 – 4) Smith (1 – 7): Team 3 – 21. Turnovers – 10 (Fanney 4), Rebounds 32 (Hall 9).

Shooting 15 – 54 – 28%, Free Throws 9 – 9 – 100%, Fouled out - none, technicals – none.

Riverdale : Shacobia Barbee – 30, Jaclissa Haislip – 12, Ashley Henry – 5, Natalie Lanning – 5, Olivia Jones – 4, Tyisha Petty – 2, Candace Spurlock – 1.

Three point baskets – Haislip (3 – 5), Lanning (1 – 5) : Team 4 – 16. Turnovers – 12 (Spurlock 3), Rebounds 40 (Barbee 18, Jones 7).

Shooting 17 – 45 – 38%, Free throws 21 – 27 – 78%. Fouled out none, Technicals – none.

NOTES: Don’t you think it’s neat that Anne Marie Lanning played and helped win a state title in 2007 and then three years later she gets to watch her sister Natalie do the same thing?

RHS played three games and two overtimes in this tournament – 104 minutes. Jaclissa Haislip played 103 of them. That’s a lot of running in three days.

Other Championship games: A – Jackson County 46 – Moore County 31; and AA Gibson County 63 – McMinn County – 60.

The Moore County coach is Holly White who is married to Chris White, who teaches and coaches football at Oakland. At one point Holly was the coach at Christiana Middle. She had another great year at Moore County – the Lady Raiders finished 28 – 8.

Time to turn our attention to the Siegel boys – they play Memphis Melrose Thursday – 3:15. See you there.