By Cort Reynolds
COLUMBUS GROVE - The Ada girls basketball team fell behind big early and lost 73-30 at Columbus Grove Thursday night in the Northwest Conference opener.

The defeat dropped the Ada girls to 1-2 overall and 0-1 in the NWC. CG improved to 3-1 and 1-0 in league play with the convincing win.

Grove raced to a 17-2 lead and extended it to 39-6 at intermission. The lead reached 64-18 after three periods before Ada won the final stanza, 12-9.

CG bombed in 11 three-point goals to pace their offense to its highest-scoring game of the young season.

"Grove is the best team we will face all season I think," said Ada second-year head coach Morgan Bass. "We came out and didn't handle the pressure very well from the start, so our girls were playing timid.

"We started picking it up a little bit right before the half, but they were just making shots," she added.

Freshman guard Courtney Sumner led Ada with nine points. Junior post Miranda Wills tallied eight points. Sophomore guard Kirsten Poling and classmate guard Timber Blankenship each added five markers.

Savannah Ridenour scored 21 points to lead four CG players in double figures. Senior Abigail Gladwell and Kenzie King each netted 13 points, while junior Erin Downing added a dozen points.

King, Ridenour and Gladwell each drained three triples.
 
Ada sank 12 field goals, including two trifectas. They made four of eight foul shots.

CG drained 28 baskets, including 17 two-pointers. Grove also converted six of eight foul shots (75 percent).

Ada 30 (1-2, 0-1 NWC)
Sumner 4 0-2 9, Poling 2 1-2 5, Light 1 0-0 2, Blankenship 2 0-0 5, Acheson 0 1-2 1, Wills 3 2-2 8, Waugh 0.
Totals: 12/4-8/30. 3-pointers: Sumner 1, Blankenship 1.

CG 73 (3-1, 1-0 NWC)
Schneider 3 0-0 6, Witteborg 2 0-0 4, Utendorf 0, Downing 4 2-4 12, King 4 2-2 13, Gladwell 5 0-0 13, Ridenour 9 0-0 21, Thompson 1 2-2 4.
Totals: 28/6-8/73. 3-pointers: King 3, Ridenour 3, Gladwell 3, Downing 2.
 
    1    2    3    4    F
Ada    2    4    12    12    30    
CG    17    22    25    9    73
JV: CG 42, Ada 6. 

Ada (1-1 road) visits Perry Saturday at noon. The Bulldogs split with the Commodores last season, as each team won at home.

"Perry will be more of a competitive game for us," said Bass. "We will need to be able to guard the ball and finish our shot opportunities."