By Cort Reynolds
The feisty Ada High School girls basketball team fashioned a big second-half comeback, but ultimately lost to visiting McComb 49-40 in a spirited season opener Friday night.
The Bulldogs rallied from a 14-point deficit to within three in the second half, but a 9-0 McComb spurt midway through the fourth period spelled the difference in the outcome.
The Ada offense got untracked in the final 13 minutes, yet they were unable to overcome a slow start and 19 turnovers. However, the Bulldog girls kept battling and made a close game of it late before falling just short.
McComb scored the last five points of the game at the foul line to stave off the hard-charging Bulldogs.
It was the debut of new Ada head coach Zach Ricker.
"Turnovers hurt us," noted first-year head coach Ricker. "It was a combination of first-game jitters and not seeing 3-2 zones much. When we were patient on offense, we got good looks.
"There are a lot of positives we can take away, we showed potential," he continued. "Basketball is a game of runs and we can't go scoreless for stretches. They had more runs than we did."
Starting out as cold as the wind chill outside, the Bulldogs fell behind 7-0. Panther Kacey Like drained a right wing trey to open the game, and McComb hit two more inside shots.
Ada senior guard Courtney Sumner tallied the first points of the season on a pair of foul shots at the 4:46 mark. Junior southpaw Mariah King canned the first basket of the campaign on a 10-footer at the 3:30 juncture.
"I think we were too amped up at the beginning," said Ricker of the slow offensive start. "We were also giving up a lot of size at every position."
The Panthers netted the last two baskets of the first stanza to take an 11-4 lead at the quarter break. Five turnovers and poor outside shooting plagued Ada early.
McComb extended its lead to 14-4 early in the second quarter. Stingy defense kept the Bulldogs in the game until the offense started to click.
Ada junior guard Olivia Burkhart knocked down a 13-foot pull-up shot. She then drove and converted a three-point play to cut the deficit to 14-9.
Speedy King banked in a transition shot at the 2:49 mark to cap a 7-0 flurry. But two inside baskets by 6-0 Panther center Lydia Dehart restored the lead to 19-11 with 20 seconds left in the half.
Sumner sank two foul shots with 12.1 seconds to go. But Rylee Scheff banked in a lane runner just before the buzzer to give McComb a 21-13 edge at intermission.
Madison Schroeder converted an old-fashioned three-point play to open the second half and give the visitors an 11-point lead. Cassidy Bryan's putback doubled the score, 26-13.
Ada turned the ball over on seven of their first 10 possessions in the third period. Katie Sizemore sank a layup off a nice Burkhart driving dish with 4:50 left in the third period.
Sumner drained a long triple to cut the deficit to 26-18 just 23 seconds later. Bryan answered by swishing a high-arching triple from the left wing.
Schroeder buried a right side trey off a nice kick-out pass from Dehart to build their lead to 14. Sumner swished a left wing trifecta at the 2:15 mark to ignite a 10-0 Bulldog flurry.
Sumner then stole the ball and canned a breakaway lefty layin to pull Ada within nine points. Burkhart then drilled a left side trey off a Sumner skip pass.
Lexi Poling sank a basket to pull Ada within 32-28 with 40 seconds left in the third stanza.
Hannah Sherick ended the run by hitting two free throws at the 22.7-second mark. Burkhart penetrated and drilled a pull-up 12-footer, then stole the ball just before the buzzer.
The 12-2 closing run inched Ada within 34-30 heading to the fourth quarter. The suddenly-hot Bulldogs scored more points in the final five minutes of the period than they had in the first 19.
Schroeder missed three of four foul shots in the frantic first minute of the fourth period. Autumn Andreasen splashed two free throws to creep within three.
Schroeder split two foul shots, but Bryan rebounded the miss and scored a key basket inside to make it 38-32 with just under six minutes left.
Like then banked in a shot off a nice curl.
Bryan scored again on a fine backdoor layup to put the visitors back up by 10. Bryan rebounded a missed Ada three, and McComb worked it inside to Dehart for a power layup to build the lead to 12 and prompt an Ada timeout with 3:13 remaining.
Burkhart drained a right wing trey to end the 9-0 Panther run. Poling followed by swishing a left wing triple to edge within 44-38 with just over two minutes left.
Andreasen canned a short banker with 1:44 to go as Ada cut the margin to four. But a rushed Bulldog corner three sailed long at the 1:20 juncture.
Dehart then canned two key foul shots with 59.6 ticks left. Schroeder bounced in two more free tosses to extend the lead to 48-40, and Ada turned it over on an alternate possession jump ball in the lane.
Another Schroeder free throw provided the final margin. McComb made seven of 12 from the charity stripe in the fourth period to keep Ada at bay.
"We played hard and showed a lot of toughness," Ricker said. "We came back from 14 down to three. We proved transition scoring can be a strength."
Balanced McComb was led by Bryan with 13 points. Schroeder tallied 12, and Dehart netted 11 to put three Panthers in double figures.
Burkhart tied for game-high scoring honors with 13 points. Sumner netted 12 markers, made three steals and blocked a shot.
The Bulldogs sank 14 field goals, hitting nine two-pointers and five shots from three-point territory. The Bulldogs converted seven of their nine foul shots (78 percent).
The Panther girls canned 17 field goals, including 14 two-pointers and three treys. The visitors converted 12 of 23 free throw attempts (52 percent).
McComb pulled out won the two-quarter reserve game, 10-8. Freshman Ashley Hevlin scored five points.
Ada 40 (0-1)
Sumner 3 4-4 12, Burkhart 5 1-1 13, King 2 0-0 4, Andreasen 1 2-4 4, Poling 2 0-0 5, Sizemore 1 0-0 2, Conley 0.
Totals: 9-5/7-9/40. 3-pointers: Sumner 2, Burkhart 2, Poling 1.
McComb 49 (1-0)
Like 2 0-0 5, Ma. Schroeder 3 6-10 12, Scheff 3 0-0 6, Bryan 6 0-3 13, Sherick 0 2-2 2, DeHart 4 3-4 11, Mc. Schroder 0.
Totals: 14-3/12-23/49. 3-pointers: Like 1, M. Schroeder 1, Bryan 1.
1 2 3 4 F
Ada 4 9 17 10 40
McC 11 10 13 15 49
2-quarter JV: McComb 10, Ada 8.
Ada visits local non-league rival Cory-Rawson (0-1) Tuesday, November 22 in the first road contest.
C-R lost 63-46 to Allen East in the annual holiday tournament semifinals at Bluffton Friday night. The Hornets play Arlington Saturday afternoon in the third-place game.
