RIPLEY — Sarah Burton carried the Blanchester girls to a 40-31 win Saturday over Ripley in a non-league game in Adams County.

The Ladycats improve to 10-3 with the win.

“It was a good week with three road wins over three pretty good teams,” BHS coach Bennie Carroll said of his squad which also won at West Union and at Eastern Brown this week. “Ripley was well-coached and well-disciplined.”

Burton, who finished with 21 points, scored 13 of Blanchester’s 15 first quarter points to put the Ladycats on top 15-9.

“Sarah got off to a great start but she picked up her second foul early in the second quarter,” Carroll said.

The BHS coach said Rachael Doyle was saddled with foul troubles the entire game and played approximately five minutes total.

Ripley battled back to tie the game at halftime 19-19.

“After the initial surge by Sarah, we struggled to score against their half-court defense,” said Carroll.

Blanchester regained its footing, so to speak, in the third period thanks to a pair or 3-pointers by Tristan Culberson that put BHS back on top.

Burton converted 5 of 7 free throw attempts in the fourth quarter (10 of 12 for the game) and the Ladycats, according to Carroll, played “some pretty good defense” to hold on for the win.

SUMMARY

Jan 9, 2016

@Ripley High School

Blanchester 40 Ripley 31

B 15.04.10.11…..40

R 09.10.06.06…..31

(40) BLANCHESTER (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Doyle 1-0-0-2 Culberson 2-2-2/2-8 Doughman 0-0-1/8-1 Burton 5-1-10/12-21 Lindsey 1-0-0/1-2 E. Gundler 1-0-0/2-2 Duger 2-0-0/2-4. TOTALS 12-1-13/27-40

(31) RIPLEY (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Arnett 3-0-2/4-8 Abbott 2-0-4/5-8 Prater 0-0-4/6-4 Daulton 1-0-1/3-3 Gilkerson 1-0-2/8-4 Eichner 2-0-0-4. TOTALS 9-0-13/26-31