North Adams’ Jordan Slack fires off a shot from the corner in the fourth quarter of last Monday night’s varsity girls game with Manchester. The Lady Devils rolled to a 60-24 victory.

By Mark Carpenter – 

Youth vs. experience. That holds true for a lot of games this year for the Manchester Lady Greyhounds, who field a team led by freshmen, and are naturally going to suffer some lopsided losses when they run up against teams like they did last Monday night, a senior-laden squad of North Adams Lady Devils. Things were further exasperated by the absence of Manchester’s Karigan Turner, a freshman who had been a pleasant surprise on the offensive end thus far for Coach Vohn Hoop.
There were no surprises in Seaman on Monday night as the script went pretty much as expected. If the game had been scored like football, then the host Lady Devils would have easily won the time of possession battle, as their defense forced 38 Manchester turnovers as the Lady Hounds never seemed to hang on to the ball very long. Jumping to an early lead and never looking back, the Lady Devils placed three players in double figures and cruised to their fifth victory of the season by a final score of 60-24.
“We didn’t shoot the ball real well in the first half so I told them at halftime that when you can’t put the ball in the ocean, you have to come out and guard and rebound and that’s what we did tonight,” said North Adams head coach Rob Davis after the win. “I thought we did a good job defensively and rebounded a lot better than we have been and we got hot the second half.”
“Our intensity slipped a little in the second half but that happens sometimes in games like this.”
It didn’t take long for North Adams to establish dominance on Monday night as the Lady Devils used a stifling defense to race to a 9-0 lead midway through the first quarter. The Lady Hounds finally broke through the North Adams press and got their first basket of the game from Darrington White and though the Lady Devils’ offense sputtered the remainder of the first quarter, Manchester could only manage a pair of Sydnie Cox free throws and trailed 11-4 after one.

This one is going back where it came from as North Adams’ Avery Harper throws the block down on this shot attempt by Manchester’s McKenzie Smith. On the offensive end, Harper scored 11 points as the Lady Devils tallied a 60-24 victory.

The North Adams offense that sputtered at the end of the first quarter came to life as the second period began, turning a flurry of Manchester turnovers into a 12-0 run, holding the Lady Hounds scoreless for nearly six minutes. Back to back steals and scores by Taylor Hesler and Laky Hupp began the run, which ended with back to back baskets from Avery Harper to give the home team a commanding 23-4 advantage.
Manchester only put up a single point in the entire second quarter, that being a Cox free throw at the 2:35 mark, leaving the home team with a 23-5 lead at the intermission.
The second half began with a Cox basket on the first Lady Hounds’ possession, but that was quickly followed by North Adams running off nine straight, beginning with a Madee Shipley three-pointer and ending with two baskets from Hupp to make the score 32-7.
The Lady Devils did an outstanding defensive job all night on Manchester’s leading scorer, freshman Brooke Kennedy, who didn’t get her first points of the game until the 5:30 mark of the third period, when she converted an old-fashioned three-point play that made it 32-10. White later hit a three-pointer for the Lady Hounds but the home team matched that with a three-point play from their own freshman Delaney Harper. Another long “3” by Shipley late in the quarter sent the two teams to the final eight minutes with the home team very comfortably in front 46-18.
“Lakyn Hupp did a great job on Kennedy tonight,” said Coach Davis. “She beat her to spots and did everything we wanted after the scouting we had done. She kept her off the boards which was really important. They’re a young team but they will be a handful soon.”
With the big lead, Coach Davis was able to substitute freely throughout the fourth quarter, but not before starter Shipley drilled two more from long distance to extend the lead even further. The Lady Devils got fourth quarter baskets from Delaney Harper and Grace McDowell and closed out the win in grand fashion, with freshman Wylie Shipley draining a three-pointer from the corner, putting the finishing touch on a Southern Hills Athletic Conference win for the Lady Devils by the final count of 60-24.
The trio of Lady Devils in double figures for the Lady Devils was led by Hupp’s 16 points, with Madee Shipley adding 14, a total that included a quartet of three-point goals. Avery Harper added 11, with sister Delaney tossing in 9 for the winners.

It’s hand to hand combat in the fourth quarter of Monday’s game as North Adams’ Mary Sonner defends a shot by Manchester’s Brooke Kennedy.

It was an offensive struggle all night for the Manchester girls, and they only had four players score, led by Cox with 12. Kennedy and White had 5 each for the Lady Hounds, who dropped to 4-4 on the year, 2-4 in the SHAC.
The night was a clean sweep for North Adams as Coach Tony Williams and his JV Lady Devils came out of the gates on fire, scoring 37 first half points on their way to an easy 53-13 win. Wylie Shipley and Braylie Jones each scored 10 in the victory, with Carolyn Shupert adding 9.
The Lady Devils finished the pre-Christmas portion of their schedule on Thursday, Dec. 21 with a trip to Paint Valley for a non-conference tilt, before matching up on Dec. 29 in the McDonald’s Classic with the Peebles Lady Indians.
Manchester was in SHAC action again on Dec. 21 with a trip to Ripley and will face the West Union Lady Dragons on Dec. 29 in the McDonald’s Classic.

Manchester
4 1 13 6 –24
North Adams
11 12 23 14 –60

Manchester (24): White 2 0-0 5, Cox 3 6-8 12, Kennedy 2 1-1 5, Sweeney 1 0-0 2, Team 8 7-9 24.
N. Adams (60): Hesler 1 0-0 2, Sonner 0 1-2 1, W. Shipley 1 0-0 3, Hupp 8 0-0 16, M.Shipley 5 0-0 14, McDowell 2 0-0 4, D. Harper 4 1-1 9, A. Harper 5 1-2 11, Team 26 3-5 60.
Three-Point Goals:
Manchester (1): White 1
N. Adams (5): M. Shipley 4, W. Shipley 1