North Adams’ Morgan Shupert lines up a three-point shot attempt in the Lady Devils’ one-point loss to Goshen on January 22. (Photo by Garth Shanklin)
Free throws spell doom in 54-53 North Adams loss
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
It was a full day of girls basketball action on Saturday, January 22 at Eastern Brown High School as the school played host to 16 varsity teams in what was deemed “The Eastern Winter Showcase”. The first action was slated for a 9 a.m. tip off and as the luck of the draw would have it, that game matched up Coach Rob Davis and his North Adams Lady Devils with the Goshen Lady Warriors from the SBAAC.
Even with the early start, the two teams put on a good show for the small crowd of fans who populated the stands, but in the end the Achilles heel for the Lady Devils, failure from the free throw line, raised its ugly head once more as the North Adams squad rallied from a fourth quarter double digit deficit but fell just short in the end, falling to Goshen by the final score of 54-53.
“I;m not sure how the early start affected us, but Goshen came out and shot the ball well in the first half,” said Coach Davis. “We had our chance to tie it or take a lead late, but we missed a layup and free throws. Again, we didn’t shoot free throws well.” For the game, the Lady Devils hit just 12 of 24 charity tosses.
The first half was a game of runs , starting with a 10-0 Goshen run in the first quarter that gave them a 14-10 lead, only to see that answered with a 6-0 North Adams run to end the period and give the Lady Devils a two-point advantage.
Goshen canned the first two buckets of the second period, before a steal and score by North Adams’ Sierra Kendall tied things at 18. The game was tied at 20 midway through the second frame but the Lady Warriors mounted up and scored the final 13 points of the first half, getting three-pointers from Peyton Shafer, Gracie Hampton and Amy Myers as they quickly posted a 33-20 halftime advantage.
“The second quarter killed us,” said Coach Davis. “We were flat and we just didn’t seem ready to play. We got off to a good start but just seemed to have no energy.”
“I asked the kids to cut this thing in half and then see what happens. I asked them to get it under 10 points and we did. We had a chance and that’s all you can ask out of your kids.”
The Lady Warriors maintained their lead through the third quarter, despite three-point buckets by North Adams’ Keetyn Hupp and Harlee Brand, and by the end of three, Coach Davis and his team had the lead under 10 as hoped, trailing 42-34.
The Lady Devils continued to chip away at the deficit as the fourth quarter proceeded, another Brand triple making it 44-37 Goshen. Just as quickly the Lady Warriors boosted their lead back up to 51-39 with just over three minutes to play, but then the Lady Devils came up with that one last run, scoring the games’ next 10 points, getting three-point goals from Brand, Kenlie Jones, and Laney Ruckel to trail just 51-49 with 1:50 to play.
The Lady Warriors tacked on a pair of free throws to give them some cushion but a coast to coast score from Kendall made it 53-51 and an ensuing free throw from Jones pulled North Adams within one with 8.4 seconds remaining. Shafer hit one of two from the stripe to put Goshen up by two and Kendall was fouled on the inbounds pass with 2.6 ticks on the clock and she went to the line with a chance to tie, but missed the first shot of the double bonus. The senior guard hit the second shot but Goshen was able to get the ball inbounds and run out the clock on a one-point triumph.
Payton Shafer led the winners with 21 points, with three teammates adding 8 each- Abby Strunk, Gracie Hampton and Amy Myers.
North Adams was paced by 19 points from junior KeetynHupp, joined in double figures by Harlee Brand with 11. Laney Ruckel scored 8 with Kenlie Jones chipping in 6.
The loss dropped the Lady Devils to 13-4 on the season, but they came back and picked up win #14 on Monday, January 24 as they downed Fayetteville 64-43 in Southern Hills Athletic Conference play.
BOX SCORE
Goshen
14 19 9 12 —54
North Adams
16 4 14 19 —53
Goshen (54): Strunk 3 1-2 8, Shafer 7 6-8 21, Hampton 2 3-5 8, Hopper 0 1-3 1, Smiley 1 1-2 3, Myers 3 0-0 8, Noland 2 1-2 5, Team 18 13-22 54.
N. Adams (53): Kendall 2 1-2 5, Grooms 0 3-7 3, Hupp 7 4-8 19, Ruckel 2 2-3 8, Brand 4 0-0 11, Jones 2 1-2 6, Gill 0 1-2 1, Team 17 12-24 53,
Three-Point Goals:
Goshen (5)- Strunk 1, Shafer 1, Hampton 1, Myers 2
N. Adams (7)- Hupp 1, Brand 3, Ruckel 2, Jones 1
