By Cort Reynolds
ADA - Visiting Perry outscored Ada 36-15 over the middle periods en route to a 69-43 non-league win over the Bulldog boys basketball team Saturday night.
The Bulldogs fell to 2-3 with the defeat, while the Commodores evened their record at 3-3 with the victory.
Ada led 17-16 after a first period that saw seven lead changes as junior post Connor Frazier scored 10 points. But Perry netted the last 11 points of the half and held the Bulldogs to just four second period points to build a 33-21 intermission margin.
The Commodores then put together spurts of 9-0 and 15-0 in the second half to win going away.
"We struggled handling their pressure," said Ada second-year head coach Dre White, whose club made 21 turnovers. "They came after us, and we knew it would happen. We have to be mentally tough.
"We came out with 17 first quarter points but only had four in the second," he noted. "We had a lot of inconsistency. But we have to be tougher and fight through things. Our problem was more between the ears than anything else (fatigue)."
Frazier converted three inside stickbacks and Ethan Swaney swished a left corner trifecta at the buzzer to give Ada a one-point lead after the seesaw opening stanza.
Two Swaney free throws to begin the second period gave Ada its largest lead at 19-16. Yet Perry reeled off the next six points to regain the lead, which it never relinquished.
Frazier sank a layup with 4:33 left in the half to pull the purple and gold within 22-21. But then the Commodores scored the next 13 unanswered points.
Two steals and layups by junior guard Jamal Whiteside sparked the run that gave Perry a 12-point halftime bulge. Two foul shots by Nylan Cannon to start half two capped the flurry. A pair of Swaney foul shots ended the spurt at 35-23.
Bulldog sophomore Phillip Coulson then splashed a right wing trey. Junior guard Cade Mullins nailed a left baseline 18-footer and sank a nice driving layup to inch Ada within 38-30 with 5:20 to go in the third.
Perry then ran off nine consecutive points, five by Whiteside, to regain command at 47-30. A Frazier layup off a long bomb pass over the press stopped the run.
But then Perry struck for 15 unanswered points to put the game well out of reach. Whiteside again victimized Ada with eight points in the 15-0 splurge.
A right corner trey by Mullins stopped the run at 62-35. Frazier canned two foul shots, followed by an Austin Amburgey layup. Xavier Hollinger drained a triple and Brandon Hull added a free throw for Ada to provide the final margin of 26.
The Commodores outscored the Bulldogs 53-26 over the final three periods.
Frazier led Ada with 16 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots. Swaney tallied nine markers while Coulson added three assists.
"We got a good weekend out of Connor," White noted.
Whiteside led all players with 25 points. Chazz Jackson added 11 off the Perry bench.
Ada sank four of 16 triple tries (25 percent), and made 12 of 29 inside the arc on two-point field goals. Overall from the field, the purple and gold connected on 16 of 45 attempts (36 percent).
The Bulldogs were successful on seven of 12 tries at the charity stripe (58 percent).
Tallying many layups, Perry nailed 26 of 58 field shots (45 percent) and hit on three of 13 from three-point land (23 percent). The Commodores converted 14 of 19 from the foul line (74 percent).
The Commodores were out-rebounded by Ada, 31-30. The Bulldogs committed 21 costly turnovers to just seven miscues by Perry.
The Bulldog junior varsity rallied from a 13-point halftime deficit to win, 52-48. Brandon Hull tallied 16 points, while Zac Swaney and Kyle Zimmerly each netted eight as the JV improved to 3-2.
Ada 43 (2-3)
E. Swaney 2 4-4 9, Mullins 3 0-1 7, Frazier 7 2-5 16, Conley 0, Zimmerly 0, Coulson 2 0-0 5, Hall 0, Hollinger 1 0-0 3, Hull 0 1-2 1, Amburgey 1 0-0 2.
Totals: 16-45/7-12/43. 3-pointers (4-16): E. Swaney 1, Coulson 1, Mullins 1, Hollinger 1.
Perry 69 (3-3)
Cannon 2 2-2 6, Jackson 5 0-0 11, Dray 3 0-0 7, Hoersten 1 3-5 5, Whiteside 10 5-5 25, Priddy 3 2-2 9, White 1 2-4 4, Cooper 1 0-0 2. Totals: 26-58/14-19/69. 3-pointers (3-13): Jackson 1, Dray 1, Priddy 1.
1 2 3 4 F
Ada 17 4 11 11 43
Per 16 17 19 17 69
JV: Ada 52, Perry 48.
The Bulldogs travel to face improved non-league rival Cory-Rawson (3-2) Wednesday, Dec. 20. "Cory is playing very well, they just had a huge win over Liberty-Benton (40-39) and they have a really good player in Ritter," said White.
The Hornets are 1-0 at home while Ada is 0-2 on the road (2-1 home) thus far.
Ada then visits Delphos Jefferson (2-3, 0-0 NWC) in a Northwest Conference road battle Friday, Dec. 22. "That will be a tough one," White added.
