By Mark Carpenter-
Monday night at North Adams High School saw the second match up of the season between two county girls’ squads as the Lady Devils hosted the West Union Lady Dragons in Southern Hills Athletic Conference play. The two teams met back on Jan. 14 in West Union with the Lady Devils coming out on top 81-42 and Monday night’s contest was another long evening for the West Union squad. The host Lady Devils scored early and often and led from wire to wire, putting four girls in double figures as the rolled to a 68-32 victory.
“Overall, I was pleased with the way we played tonight,” said North Adams head coach Rob Davis. “Some of the sloppiness and turnovers weren’t good, but we rebounded well and got some good looks. We were working on some new stuff, getting ready for tournament because everyone is out there scouting you.”
In describing the first quarter of this game, West Union head coach J.R. Kirker simply said, “They came out and just smacked us in the face”, which is pretty accurate for how the Lady Devils came out of the gate. The North Adams girls scored on their first four offensive possessions, the fourth of those being a Braylie Jones three-pointer that gave the home team an 8-3 lead. That Jones triple was part of a 17-0 North Adams run that included back to back treys by Marah Call and Grace McDowell and two baskets by Wylie Shipley. That huge run put the Lady Devils up 22-3 before a basket by West Union’s Mackenzie Bickett broke a five-minute scoring drought for the visitors.
Two baskets in the paint by Delaney Harper sandwiched around a bucket by the Lady Dragons’ Harley Silvia saw the first quarter end with North Adams already comfortably in front 26-7.
A jumper by Call and a basket by Harper began the second quarter and after West Union got a free throw from Lexie Rowe, the Lady Devils got another Jones trey and a stick back by Karissa Buttelwerth to move their lead out to 35-8. The Lady dragons scored seven of the game’s next nine points, with a three-pointer by Bickett making it 37-15, but the half ended with two free throws from McDowell and a 39-15 North Adams advantage.
The 10-minute intermission did nothing to cool off the red-hot Lady Devils as the home team came out and drilled a quartet of third quarter three-point goals- one each from Mary Sonner, Buttelwerth, Jones, and McDowell. The Lady Dragons continued to have trouble with the defensive length of the North Adams girls and that resulted all night in easy and good looks for the Lady Devils. West Union got a couple of buckets from Lexie Rowe and another from Jaycee Baldwin but that did little to stop the North Adams assault and the third period ended with the Lady Devils on top, 57-24.
With the big lead, the Lady Devils slowed down the pace in the final eight minutes, starting the period with two Call free throws and a McDowell jumper. West Union got a steal and score from Bickett and a Lexie Rowe three and also some Silvia “string music” from long distance, but the game ended with Call hitting a pair of threes for the Lady Devils, accounting for the final points in the 68-32 North Adams triumph.
The four Lady Devils in double figures were led by Grace McDowell’s 16 points, with Marah Call adding 13, Braylie Jones 11, and DeLaney Harper 10. Wylie Shipley chipped in 7 as North Adams improved to 13-5 on the year, 7-4 in the conference, hitting 10 three-pointers in the Monday night win.
West Union (5-14, 3-8 SHAC) was led by 9 points from Mackenzie Bickett, with Lexie Rowe adding 8, and Jaycee Baldwin 7.
North Adams was scheduled to be back in action on Thursday, Jan. 30 with a big conference road game at Peebles, and the fate of that game had not been decided at press time. On Monday, Feb. 4 the Lady Devils will host Ripley on Senior Night.
“The Peebles game is a big one for us with the tournament records going in on Friday,” said Coach Davis. “I think we can lock up the #4 seed with a win.”
West Union was slated to host Eastern Brown on Jan. 31 but that game was postponed to be played at 6 p.m on Saturday, Feb. 2 and will host Fairfield on Monday, Feb. 4 in their final conference game of the season.
North Adams
26 13 18 11 —68
West Union
7 8 9 8 —32
N. Adams (68): Sonner 2 0-1 5, Shipley 3 1-4 7, Buttelwerth 2 0-0 5, Jones 4 0-0 11, Call 4 2-2 13, McDowell 6 2-4 16, Robinson 0 1-2 1, Harper 5 0-0 10, Team 26 6-16 68.
W. Union (32): L. Rowe 3 1-2 8, Silvia 2 0-0 5, Baldwin 3 1-2 7, Bickett 4 0-0 9, K. Rowe 1 0-0 3, Team 13 2-4 32.
Three-Point Goals:
W. Union (4)- L. Rowe 1, Silvia 1, Bickett 1, K. Rowe 1
N. Adams (10)- Sonner 1, Buttelwerth 1, Jones 3, Call 3, McDowell 2
