Springbrook welcomes back Riggs

Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008

Springbrook welcomes back Riggs

by Dan Greenberg | Staff Writer

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After a 20-win season a year ago, the Springbrook girls basketball team is starting to get back to where it was not long ago, for a variety of reasons. After starting the season just 1-4, the Blue Devils have reeled off five victories in their last six games, including a 62-40 win over Richard Montgomery Friday.

But the bigger story is that the boy is back in town. Blue Devils head coach Oliver Riggs Jr. missed the first 11 games of the season recovering from double bypass surgery. For the first half of the season, Springbrook field hockey coach Kearney Francis, who had not coached basketball before, served as the interim boss.

Francis performed admirably, guiding Springbrook to records of 6-5 overall and 3-1 in the Montgomery 4A East Division before Riggs returned Friday night. He was welcomed back nicely, as his team took a 10-point halftime lead and never looked back.

‘‘I had to get back into game mode pretty quick,” said Riggs Jr., who had his surgery three weeks before the season started. ‘‘But once I got back on the sidelines and the team started doing warm-ups, I was automatically back in coaching mode and I started prancing before the game, like, ‘Let’s just get this thing started.’ It was nice that the girls responded the way they did.”

The contributions were spread out, as they usually have been in Springbrook’s winning streak. Sophomore pivot Alessandra Conway-Flore has come on of late, and kept her hot play going with a game-high 19 points against the Rockets. Juniors Ferin Richardson and Jasmine Petty both reached double figures, and 6-foot center Grace French responded well to her promotion from junior varsity, pitching in four points and nine rebounds.

It seems the Blue Devils are back.

‘‘We have a good mix but we also don’t have too much depth right now, mostly a seven-player roster,” said Riggs Jr. ‘‘But I even noticed from the game I’d went to earlier in the season that this team has heart.”