By Cort Reynolds
ADA - The host Ada girls basketball team fell behind big out of the gate and lost convincingly 54-15 to Columbus Grove in the Northwest Conference opener Thursday night.
The purple and gold dropped to 0-2 (0-1 NWC) after the defeat. Defending league champion Grove improved to 2-2 (1-0 NWC) with their second straight victory.
CG used a sticky fullcourt zone press to help force eight Ada turnovers on their first nine possessions. The visitors capitalized on the miscues to race to a 16-0 lead, and were never threatened.
"We did a nice job early in the game with our defensive pressure and that created points for us," said Grove head coach Brian Schroeder. "We did a nice job pushing the ball in transition. Everyone ran the court well."
"I don't have much to say about that one," said Bulldog third-year head coach Morgan Bass. "We didn't handle their press well and made too many turnovers."
Five different Grove players scored in their decisive early flurry. Junior guard Kenzie King led CG with a triple and driving layup, while Brynn Fortman added four points in the 16-0 spurt.
Sophomore guard Sage Clement capped the run with a pretty fast break layin at the 2:14 mark.
Ada finally scored with 1:59 left in the opening stanza when freshman Olivia Burkhart found a seam in the 2-3 CG zone and sank a mid-lane shot off a Courtney Sumner feed.
Fortman followed with a steal and layup, and then junior guard Koryn Halker drilled a left corner trey. CG senior Erin Downing stole the ball and converted a left-hand layup three-point play to extend the margin to 24-2 with just under a minute to go.
Ada junior Kirsten Poling banked in a foul line jumper, followed by a steal and southpaw layin from Fortman that made it 26-4 after the first quarter.
Ada committed 12 costly turnovers in the opening stanza.
CG sophomore Jaylen Sautter canned consecutive transition layups to open the second period. Fortman swiped another soft pass and dribbled coast-to-coast for yet another layin.
Sumner swished a left wing pull-up shot from 16 feet for Ada. But Sautter stole two straight bad passes and converted them into breakaway layins for a 36-6 cushion with 3:36 left in the half.
Clement completed a driving three-point play, and King penetrated the lane for a scoop layin and a 35-point margin.
Emma Renner finished a fast break off a long lookaway feed by King to balloon the lead to an insurmountable 43-6 at intermission.
"Kenzie did a good job of looking upcourt and passing," Schroeder noted. "We got a majority of our points in transition and off steals."
Ada was guilty of 19 miscues in the first half, helping lead to 14 Grove layups.
Downing splashed a left corner trifecta two minutes into the second half. Clement swished another trey 45 seconds later to extend the advantage to 49-6.
Sumner knocked down a 17-foot shot from the circle with 19 seconds left in the third period to provide the first Ada points in over 12 minutes.
Sumner banked in a nice runner off the left baseline to early in the fourth period. Sautter answered by scoring inside seconds later, but Poling knocked down a shot with six minutes remaining.
Ada missed a pair of free throws, their first and only charity tosses of the night, at the 5:11 juncture. Sumner swished a right corner triple off a Burkhart assist at the 3:22 mark.
Renner drained a trey with 1:15 left to play to provide the final 54-15 cushion.
"I was proud of our energy from the beginning, and we ran the floor well on offense," Schroeder observed.
Sautter led eight Grove players in the scoring column with a dozen markers. Fortman and Clement each tallied eight points, while King added seven and Downing had six.
Sumner topped Ada with nine points, while Poling added four.
Ada sank seven field goals, including six deuces and one basket from beyond the arc. The Bulldogs attempted just two shots from the charity stripe, missing both.
The visiting Bulldogs canned 23 field goals and six triples. Almost all of their two-point goals were layups. CG converted two of their four free throws (50 percent).
In the reserve contest, Grove rolled 43-13. Renner led CG with nine points. Sophomore Jade Sampson topped the Bulldog reserves with five markers.
Ada 15 (0-2, 0-1 NWC)
Sumner 4 0-0 9, Poling 2 0-2 4, Light 0, Burkhart 1 0-0 2, Waugh 0, Acheson 0, King 0.
Totals: 7/0-2/15. 3-pointer: Sumner 1.
CG 54 (2-2, 1-0 NWC)
Halker 2 0-0 5, Sautter 6 0-1 12, Renner 2 0-1 5, Fortman 4 0-0 8, Downing 2 1-1 6, Clement 3 1-1 8, King 3 0-0 7, S. Schroeder 1 0-0 3.
Totals: 23/2-4/54. 3-pointers: Halker 1, King 1, Renner 1, Downing 1, Clement 1. Schroeder 1.
1 2 3 4 F
Ada 4 2 2 7 15
CG 26 17 6 5 54
JV: CG 43, Ada 13.
Ada visits Perry in its first road game early Saturday afternoon, December 5. Ada has beaten the Commodore girls in two of their last four meetings since 2018.
"I am looking forward to playing Perry Saturday," said Bass. "We have to fix our zone offense."
Grove visits Patrick Henry next Tuesday in a non-league contest.
