Lady Devils’ season plundered by a Pirate

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

For Coach Rob Davis and his North Adams Lady Devils, trips to the Division III district tournaments in recent seasons have been a mixed bag of emotions. coach Davis and his squads have seen success at the district level and they have experienced heartbreaking losses. Unfortunately, a February 19 trip to Waverly ended in one of the latter.

After winning two games on their home floor to capture another Division III sectional crown, the Lady Devils faced a much tougher task on Saturday, February 19 as they ventured to Waverly’ historic downtown gym to face what has become a familiar tournament opponent, the Wheelersburg Lady Pirates. The Lady Pirates came into Saturday’s contest with an undefeated mark of 23-0, plus a #1 ranking in the final Ohio state poll in Division III. None of that phased the underdog Lady Devils, however.

“We play the same way every time, ” said Coach davis in his postgame radio interview. “They (Wheelersburg) haven’t seen pressure like we can bring pressure and we thought they would struggle with that, but they’re not 23-0 for no reason.We just asked our kids to give us a shot and they did.”

“All the pressure was on them, being undefeated and gthe #1 team in the state. We knew they were beatable and we had to be physical for 32 minutes and stand up to them. I’ve had a lot of good teams and not to knock any of them but this bunch this year is the toughest kids I’ve ever coached. Smaller people or bigger people, they didn’t back down from anybody, just a fun bunch to coach.”

When a team is an underdog and you face a team with as many weapons as Wheelersburg, you have to immediately show that you have no fear and you are willing to go toe-to-toe with the favorite. That is exactly what the Lady Devils did on Saturday, coming out of the gates with energy and enthusiasm, determined to show that they belonged. The Lady Pirates got the first two baskets of the game, but North Adams rallied on two buckets from the aggressive Keetyn Hupp to trail just 5-4.

After a basket by Burg’s Makenna Walker, the Lady Devils got a pair of Laney Ruckel free throws and a three-pointer from Hupp to grab their first lead at the 2:10 mark of the first period. Neither side scored for the next two minutes as the defenses took over and a three-ball by the Lady Pirates’ Madison Whittaker temporarily gave the lead back to her side, but with time running out in the first quarter, a three-pointer by Ruckel gave North Adams a 12-10 lead after one.

That late Ruckel trey started an 8-0 Lady Devils run that spanned into the second quarter as two more Ruckel charity tosses and a Kenlie Jones triple gave the underdogs their biggest lead of the day at 17-10. That advantage evaporated quickly over 50 seconds when the Lady Pirates hit three-point shots on three consecutive possessions, two by Whittaker and a third from Lexie Rucker. and the scoreboard flipped to a 20-17 Wheelersburg lead.

The unexpected scoring barrage continued with a basket by North Adams’ Lizzie Gill , followed by a Rucker free throw, then a Sierra Kendall free toss. Morgan Shupert drilled a three-ball from the corner to put North Adams up 23-22 but Burg got the half’s final score to take a slim 24-23 lead into the halftime break, after an exhausting and entertaining first half of action, leaving Little doubt with anyone in attendance that the game was going down to the wire.

After an unusually high-scoring first half between two solid defensive teams, the scoring pace slowed down considerably in the third quarter and the game remained super tight, a five-point Wheelersburg lead being the largest. A jumper by Ainsley Grooms at the 5:56 mark of the third quarter gave the lead back to North Adams at 27-26, but the Lady Pirates answered with a 6-0 run to take a five-point advantage, sliced down to just a basket when Shupert again connected from long distance at the horn and after three intense quarters of action, the Lady Pirates led 32-30.

A basket by Rucker on Burg’s first possession of the final stanza stretched the lead back to four, but another three-pointer by Ruckel cut the gap to one. A clutch three-pointer from the corner by Gill tied the game at 36 with just over five minutes left on the clock. After Wheelersburg scored on a basket by Rucker to go back in front with five minutes left, a drive and score by Hupp and then a Sierra Kendall bucket off a turnover put North Adams up 40-38 with 4:03 remaining. The North Adams defense forced the Lady Pirates into 25 turnovers in the game.

Things got quite intense over the next three minutes and neither team could score until a basket by Walker tied the gamer at 40 with 1:13 to play and set the stage for what turned out to be a heartbreaking end for the Lady Devils.

After the tying score, Coach Davis decided to play for the final shot to win or go to overtime. Though it got dicey a couple of times, the Lady Devils ran the clock down to 10 seconds before Ruckel found herself open at the top of the key for a three-point attempt that banged off the back of the rim and after a scramble for the rebound, the ball ended up going out of bounds near midcourt and the officials awarded possession to Wheelersburg with 4.8 seconds left.

Burg Coach Dusty Spradlin called a timeout and as it turned out, drew up the perfect play. The ball was thrown in to Keeney who got past a North Adams defender and headed down the left side to the basket. The Lady Pirates’ senior tossed up a floating runner from about 12 feet out that agonizingly bounced on the rim before falling through to give the #1 seed the buzzer-beating victory and again break the hearts of the Lady Devils in district play.

The gut-wrenching loss ended the North Adams season with an overall record of 18-6, with five of those losses coming to teams that were state-ranked, nothing to be ashamed of there. In the loss, the Lady Devils were led by 12 points from junior Laney Ruckel, including a 6 for 6 performance at the free throw line. Junior Keetyn Hupp added 9 points, with seniors Morgan Shupert and Lizzie Gill scoring 6 and 5 points respectively. The Lady Devils hit 7 three-pointers and went 7 for 10 from the foul line in the loss.

“These kids really wanted it today, but we just came up a little bit short,” said Coach Davis. “We’ve got a good bunch comingback but they will have to put the time and work in to get better. People thought we would be down this year but I knew we’d come out and always compete. I’m looking forward to next year but this one was a tough one to take today.”

Wheelersburg moved on to the district finals and a match up with another member of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference, the Fairfield Lady Lions. In Saturday’s win, they were paced by 15 points from Lexie Rucker, with Makenna Walker and Madison Whittaker adding 9 apiece.

The loss on Saturday was the final appearance in the North Adams uniform for seniors Morgan Shupert, Sierra Kendall, Ainsley Grooms, Lizzie Gill, Sydney Figgins, and Mona Edwards.

“It’s tough to lose a great group of seniors, see them the last time inthe locker room,” said Davis. “They will be missed, they’re just a good bunch of kids.”

BOX SCORE

North Adams

12 11 7 10 —40

Wheelersburg

10 14 8 10 —42

N. Adams (40): Shupert 2 0-0 6, Kendall 1 1-2 3, A. Grooms 1 0-0 2, Hupp 4 0-2 9, Ruckel 2 6-6 12, Jones 1 0-0 3, Gill 2 0-0 5, Team 13 7-10 40.

Wheelersburg (42): Whittaker 3 0-0 9, Keeney 2 1-2 5, Walker 4 1-2 9, Rucker 7 0-0 15, Eaton 1 2-2 4, Team 17 4-6 42.

Three-Point Goals:

N. Adams (7): Shupert 2, Hupp 1, Ruckel 2, Jones 1, Gill 1

Wheelersburg (4)- Whittaker 3, Rucker 1