McNicholas’ winning shot boosts Ridley past Garnet Valley

CONCORD — Kylie McNicholas comes from a famous Ridley family.

Her grandfather is legendary Ridley High football coach, Joe McNicholas, a 226-game winner.

“He’s a big talker,” McNicholas said, laughing. “He’ll give me advice on some things.”

Kylie McNicholas, a junior, is a sharp-shooting guard for the Ridley girls basketball team. She made the game-winning shot in the fourth quarter to propel the Green Raiders to a thrilling, 47-45 victory Tuesday night at Garnet Valley.

The last name is synonymous with success at Ridley, and Kylie McNicholas surely made her grandfather proud with her effort Tuesday.

McNicholas stood at the corner along the Green Raiders bench and calmly swished her third 3-pointer of the night with a minute to go. She finished with 11 points and a game-high four assists.

McNicholas recently missed a few games due to a banged-up shoulder suffered in the Green Raiders’ loss to first-place Springfield earlier this month. She said it had taken a little time to find her shot again.

“I know my teammates are always going to be there to have my back,” she said. “I’ve been in a shooting slump recently, but in this game I finally started to feel more confident in myself. The first game back after my injury, I felt like I couldn’t even shoot, really. I felt a lot better tonight.”

Meanwhile for Ridley, Dakota McCaughan was popping 3-pointers like TicTacs. The sensational senior guard drained nine treys en route to scoring a game-high 28 points. She shot 9 of 15 from long distance. As a team, Ridley made 16 field goals, including 13 from beyond the arc.

McCaughan’s biggest play of the night wasn’t one of her bombs-away 3-balls or ****** crossover moves; rather, it was the charge she took in the waning seconds of regulation, sealing the win for the Green Raiders. McCaughan doesn’t often hang inside the paint to take an offensive charge, but with the game on the line, she sacrificed as GV’s Ava Possenti drove the lane with eight seconds left.

She took the impact and fell to the floor as Possenti was whistled for the offensive foul with three seconds to go. McCaughan was helped off the hardwood and congratulated by her teammates.

“I watched her earlier in the game and I could see that she wasn’t too shifty, so I knew that with the time constraint that she was going to go right up,” McCaughan said. “I just stepped up and I knew my teammates were going to let me take it and I got real excited.”

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