North Adams’ Kenlie Jones fires up a three-point shot over Eastern’s Bailey Dotson in action from Monday night’s SHAC match up. (Photo by Garth Shanklin)
Lady Warriors take down North Adams for second time
North Adams’ Sydney Figgins scores her only bucket of Monday night’s game at Eastern Brown on this shot from the baseline. (Photo by Garth Shanklin)
By Garth Shanklin
News Democrat
Two of the premier teams in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference clashed on the court at Eastern Brown High School on Monday, January 10.
When the final buzzer sounded, the host Lady Warriors had emerged with a 69-50 win over the North Adams Lady Devils to stay undefeated in conference play and defeat North Adams for the second time this season.
It was a back-and-forth contest in the first half. Eastern led 9-4 midway through the first period only to see the visitors score six straight points to take a 10-9 lead. The Lady Warriors scored 12 of the final 14 points in the quarter to hold a 22-13 advantage after one period.
In the second quarter, North Adams opened on a 12-1 run to take a 25-23 lead with 4:41 left in the half. Eastern answered again, scoring nine straight to help push the advantage to 35-29 Lady Warriors at halftime.
Eastern’s Mackenzie Gloff took over in the third quarter. She nearly outscored North Adams by herself, scoring eight of Eastern’s 18 points as the Lady Warriors pushed their advantage to 53-38 after three periods.
The Lady Warriors pushed the lead up to as many as 20 points before settling for a 19-point advantage. The win improved Eastern’s record to 12-2 overall and kept Kevin Pickerill’s Lady Warriors undefeated in SHAC play. It was the team’s first game since the championship match up of the Brown County Holiday Tournament on December 30.
“Being off that long, I thought maybe we’d start out a little sluggish just trying to get back up to game speed,” Pickerill said. “We came out hungry. North Adams is going to give you 110 [percent] every night, their effort is always top-notch. We felt like we had to match that, and we did.”
North Adams head coach Rob Davis said the team had hoped the entire game would be more like the back-and-forth nature of the first half, but it wasn’t to be.
“We thought it was going to be that way,” Davis said. “We came out and turned it over three or four times and you just can’t do that against good teams.”
Those turnovers proved costly for the Lady Devils. Eastern started the third period by outscoring North Adams 8-2 thanks to miscues by North Adams.
We came out in the second half, the first three or four possessions, and turned it over,” Davis said. “I thought we played really well in the first half, they had that little run where they took the lead…little immaturity on our part, shot selection stuff late in the half.”
Eastern also made Gloff a priority in the paint on offense in the second half, which proved to be key to the team’s success.
“We fixed a few things, made a few adjustments and went back on a run to get that lead at halftime,” Pickerill said. “We just had to make [Gloff] a part of the offense and at the same time, use her. If they’re going to double her, she’s a good enough passer and she’s got a good feel for the game, she’s able to kick that ball out.”
Gloff finished the game with 16 points, including the eight points in the third quarter.
“When Mac’s playing that well, they’re hard to handle,” Davis said. “We can’t give up 69 points, and our defense doesn’t usually do that. We score 50, we should win.”
Eastern also made hay from beyond the three-point line in the game. The team hit nine three-point shots: Rylee Leonard had four, Torie Utter and Emma Prine had two each and Bailey Dotson made one of her own in the second quarter.
“I felt like our kids hit some big threes in this game,” Pickerill said. “Riley hit one early, Emma, Bailey in the first half…Prine hit one late, I probably wouldn’t have shot that one. Torie hit a kick-out three. Those were big shots when you’re getting doubled in the post.”
Leonard led all scorers with 17 points. Prine had 12, Utter finished with 11 and Mya Hamilton added eight. Sarah Clark scored her two points in the fourth quarter for Eastern.
North Adams was led by Laney Ruckel, who scored 11 points. Sierra Kendall added 10. Keetyn Hupp 9, Kenlie Jones 7, Ainsley Grooms 6, Lizzie Gill 5 and Sydney Figgins 2 rounded out the scoring for the Lady Devils.
The conference road got no easier for Coach Davis and his troops as they were slated to travel to Fairfield on Thursday night to face a talented squad of Lady Lions. Results from that contest were not available at press time.
