North Adams senior point guard Kenlie Jones goes for the reverse layup attempt in the Lady Devils 52-23 sectional final win over Piketon on February 17. Jones led the Lady Devils with 17 points. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Second half surge sends North Adams past Piketon
North Adams’ Karlie Kennedy gets a shot off over a Piketon defender in action from Saturday’s Division III sectional final. Kennedy scored 7 points as the Lady devils advanced with a 52-23 victory. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
North Adams’ Tatum Grooms drives to the rim during the Lady Devils’ sectional championship win over Piketon. Grooms hit double figures with 10 points as the Lady Devils moved on to the Division III district semis. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Winning sectional championships has become old hat for Coach Rob Davis and the North Adams Lady Devils. Besides winning 11 Southern Hills Athletic Conference titles in his 24 years at the helm at North Adams, Davis and his teams have also captured 17 sectional crowns. Number 17 came last Saturday afternoon at Waverly High School as the #5 seeded Lady Devils faced off with the #20 seeded Piketon Lady Redstreaks.
The seedings would indicate that Saturday’s match up might be a breeze for the Lady Devils, but no one told that to the Piketon five, at least not for the game’s first 16 minutes. In all honesty, the Lady Redstreaks were the better team in the first half but their inability to convert shots from close range cost them and they played well but still found themselves down six at the half. From then on, it was downhill fast for the Piketon squad as the Lady Devils came to life, totally dominated the second half and advanced back to the Division III district tournament with a convincing 52-23 victory.
“I thought our energy was there early and we just couldn’t finish plays,” Coach Davis told don Bowles of C103 Radio after the win. “It was physical and sometimes we don’t like that. We had some foul trouble but I was happy with how we finished the first half. I knew our pressure would get to them when we finally started hitting some shots and turning them over.”
If Coach Davis and his squad have a kink in their armor, it is the fact that they notoriously get off to slow starts and find themselves in come-from-behind mode. That was once again the case on Saturday at Waverly as the Lady Devils only scored two points in the game’s first six minutes, falling behind 7-2 and fortunate that Piketon could not score on the inside. Finally, the North Adams offense found a spark as Kenlie Jones drilled a three-ball from deep, followed by a Taylor Shelton free throw and a Jones stickback. That brief 6-0 run gave the Lady Devils a one-point lead at the first quarter’s end.
Neither team put on a memorable offensive show in the second quarter, Piketon taking the lead back on their first possession on a basket by freshman Jaylin Forbes, but the Lady Devils put together another 6-0 spurt, holding the Lady Redstreaks scoreless for over six minutes and taking a 14-9 lead after a Piketon turnover resulted in a Harlee Brand bucket on the other end. The Lady Redstreaks broke their drought with a basket by freshman Haydn Daniels, but a later three-pointer from North Adams’ Karlie Kennedy gave the Lady Devils a shaky 17-11 halftime advantage.
The halftime respite must have been what the Lady Devils needed to shake off the rust and ratchet up the defensive pressure as they made a quick third quarter statement, opening the frame with a 9-0 run, five of those points coming from the always hustling Tatum Grooms. That run eased the minds of anxious North Adams fans as their team now held a much more comfortable 26-11 advantage.
The first Piketon points of the third quarter did not come until the 3:20 mark on a Forbes three-pointer, bu the Lady Devils answered that with two Katelynn Boerger free throws and a perfectly executed out-of-bounds play that ended in a Jones triple and a 31-14 lead. After a clear out for Jones in the final seconds of the third resulted in the senior guard getting to the basket and scoring, making it 33-16.
The big North Adams third quarter seemed to take a good bit of the fight out of the Lady Redstreaks as the Lady Devils’ lead continued to grow, a rare three-pointer from Grooms extending the margin to 37-16. After a Piketon free throw, the Lady Devils exploded again and reeled off 12 straight, a run that concluded with an old-fashioned three-point play from Kennedy and a commanding 49-17 lead. That allowed Coach Davis to empty his bench and off the bench, sophomore Aly McCann hit a three-pointer and the Lady Devils were off to defend their district title with the 52-23 victory.
The winners placed a pair of players in double figures, led by 17 points from Kenlie Jones (5-6 from the foul line), with Tatum Grooms adding 10. Karlie Kennedy had a solid game on both ends and tallied 7 points. The Lady Devils outscored Piketon 35-12 in the second half.
Piketon was led by 9 points from Jaylin Forbes.
The now 18-5 Lady Devils now return to the Division III District Tournament as a defending champion and they will see semi-final action on Saturday, February 24 at everyone’s favorite tourney venue, the Waverly Downtown Gym. In a 12:45 scheduled tip off. North Adams will face the #8 seeded River Valley Lady Raiders in what should be a challenging battle for the berth in the district championship game.
Piketon
7 4 5 7 —23
North Adams
8 9 16 19 —52
Piketon (23): Daniels 1 1-2 3, Kelley 1 0-0 3, Brown 1 1-2 3, Ritchie 2 1-2 5, Forbes 3 2-2 9, Team 8 5-8 23.
N. Adams (52): M. Shelton 1 1-2 3, Grooms 4 1-2 10, Kennedy 2 2-3 7, Boerger 0 3-4 3, McCann 1 0-0 3, Brand 2 1-4 5, Jones 5 5-6 17, T. Shelton 1 2-4 4, Team 16 15-25 52.
Three-Point Goals:
Piketon (2)- Kelley 1, Forbes 1
N. Adams (5)- Jones 2, Grooms 1, Kennedy 1, McCann 1
