Senior Tatum Grooms, left, led the North Adams Lady Devils with 17 points in their district quarterfinal win over Wellston on February 13. (Photo by Tim Daulton)
North Adams moves on with rout of Wellston
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
When you are the higher seed in a first round tournament match up, it’s good to make it evident early that there will not be any upsets occurring. That was the task facing Coach Rob Davis and his North Adams Lady Devils last Thursday as they hosted the Wellston Golden Rockets in a Division V district quarterfinal match up and that was the task they were certainly up for.
As the #5 seed hosting the #20 seed, the Lady Devils needed to make an early statement and prove why they were the higher seed. A 21-point first quarter helped get that point across. Coach Davis tends to use all his players and in that opening frame, he had seven different girls get in the scoring column, led by six from Katelynn Boerger, two baskets from Tatum Grooms and three-point goals from Aly McCann and Jaida Harrison. All of that led to the home team holding a 21-8 advantage after eight minutes of action.
In the second period, the North Adams defense held up their end of the bargain as they held the Golden Rockets to just five points while the offense continued to build on their lead. Another three-ball from McCann plus 7 for 8 from the free throw line gave the Lady Devils a comfortable 39-13 lead at the half.
The third quarter saw the home side maintain their big lead, outscoring Wellston 14-8 and in the final frame, again it was a balanced attack, six girls scoring with McKenna Shelton drilling a three-pointer plus baskets off the bench from Ava Pistole and Elizabeth Raines. As the final horn sounded, the Lady Devils had again advanced to the district semifinals with a 69-24 victory.
“We were a little sloppy the first half with too many turnovers and we’ll need to clean things up a bit,” Coach Davis said in his postgame radio interview. “We’ll have to get better before the next game. We used a lot of players tonight and that’s what our kids have to do when you get in foul trouble in the tournament.”
In the win, the Lady Devils were led in scoring by a pair of seniors, Tatum Grooms with 17 and Katelynn Boerger 13. Sophomore Emma Pistole added 9 with senior Karlie Kennedy scoring 7 as all but one North Adams player who saw action got in the scorebook.
“Our seniors are great leaders out there and they work hard in practice,” said Coach Davis. “Some kids will just go through the motions at practice, but not these girls.”
The Lady Devils advanced to a Division V semifinal on Tuesday, February 18 in he Waverly Downtown Gym, facing a much tougher task with #8 seed Adena. The final of that contest was not available at press time as North Adams looked for a return trip to a district championship game.
Wellston
8 5 8 3 —24
North Adams
21 18 14 16 —69
Wellston (24): Stevens 4 1-6 10, Moon 0 1-2 1, Boggs 4 4-7 12, Wiseman 0 1-2 1, Team 8 7-17 24.
N. Adams (69): Shelton 1 0-0 3, Grooms 7 3-4 17, Kennedy 2 3-3 7, Boerger 5 3-5 13, E. Pistole 3 3-6 9, Davis 2 0-0 4, McCann 2 0-0 6, A. Pistole 1 1-2 3, Harrison 2 0-0 5, Raines 1 0-0 2, Team 26 13-20 69.
Three-Point Goals:
Wellston (1)- Stevens 1
N. Adams (4)- McCann 2, Harrison 1, Shelton 1
