By Cort Reynolds
RIDGEWAY - The host Ridgemont boys basketball team edged spunky Hardin County rival Ada 59-58 in an overtime thriller Friday night in the season-opener.
Ada trailed 20-10 after one period of play. But the Bulldogs whittled the deficit to 28-24 by halftime as junior Cayden Murphy netted seven points in the second stanza.
Ridgemont forged in front 46-39 heading to the fourth period behind 10 points from Landon Newland in the third period. Yet Ada rallied with a 15-8 closing run as Micah Cook and Jacob Poling each scored five points, and Tristan Conley added a three-pointer.
Bulldog senior Cook drove and canned a layup with just under three seconds left in regulation to tie it 54-54 and force overtime.
Ridgemont committed four turnovers in a row to start the OT but Ada could not capitalize on any of the miscues to seize the lead.
"That opportunity lost was what cost us in the end," said Ada head coach Jon Cook. "Had we been a little more efficient on offense we could have won."
The Gophers then edged ahead 59-56 on a basket and three free throws. In the final seconds of OT, Ada had two looks from three-point range rattle out. Trent Ennis tipped in the second miss just before the buzzer to provide the final margin.
"We had pretty good looks on both three's, and the second one almost went down," Cook said.
Murphy scored two of the four Bulldog points in overtime, and ended up with a career-high 13 points.
Cook also scored 13, while Conley tallied nine. Ennis netted eight of his 10 points in the third period. Poling netted seven markers, and Spencer Wall added six.
Junior Newland netted a game-high 20 points to pace the victors. Gopher senior Jayden Streets tallied 16 points on the strength of three first-period triples. Gopher junior Mason Stuck contributed 15 markers as the trio combined for 51 of the 59 Gopher points.
"I am really proud of our guys," said Cook. "Ridgemont has a lot of talent and experience. For us to start practice a week late and run a whole new system with very little experience on the floor, I was pleased. The effort and attention to things we think are important was there.
"We gave ourselves a chance to win a game on the road against a good team," he continued. "I am not sure I could have asked for a better performance on opening night from our guys considering where we were four weeks ago."
Ada played a lot of matchup zone defense vs. the Gophers, who dressed just nine players and thus did not have enough to play the reserve contest. The hosts were minus a starter and some role players due to the virus and suspensions.
"We lack some size and rebounding, but we have length," Cook noted. "Playing zone will help us avoid foul trouble as well.
"We had a really good second quarter but a bad start to the third," he continued. "They missed some free throws and we hung in there and battled, and made some shots. Micah made a nice driving layup to tie it."
After surviving the Bulldog upset bid, the Gophers start out 1-0 with the victory, while Ada begins 0-1.
The Bulldogs sank 23 of 56 shots overall from the field (41 percent), including 15 for 35 on two-point tries (43 percent) and eight of 21 on trifectas (38 percent).
Ada converted four of seven from the charity stripe (57 percent). "We didn't get to the foul line a lot; we don't have a lot of guys attacking off the dribble yet," said Cook. "I can live with 21 three-point tries, but we need to get to the line more."
The Gophers canned 22 of 49 field goal attempts (45 percent). They hit on 17 of 35 two-pointers (49 percent), and sank five of 14 from three-point territory (36 percent).
Ridgemont sank 10 of 18 at the foul line (56 percent).
Ada was out-rebounded by the Gophers, 32-23. The Bulldogs committed 10 turnovers while the Gophers made 11 errors.
"Sometimes being thankful for the chance to compete and the joy of competition ends up like it did tonight, which is a tough pill to swallow," summed up Cook. "If fairy tales were real with everything the program has gone through, that game ends up going our way.
"Generating offense is going to be a challenge for us, but I will take the point distribution we had tonight," he added.
Ada 58 (0-1)
Ennis 4 0-1 10, Murphy 7 1-2 15, Poling 3 0-0 7, Cook 5 0-0 13, Wall 3 0-0 6, T. Conley 2 3-4 9.
Totals: 23-56/4-7/58. 3-pointers (8-21): Cook 3, Conley 2, Ennis 2, Poling 1.
Ridgemont 59 (1-0)
Streets 6 1-2 16, Gamble 1 2-3 1, Reppart 2 2-4 6, Newland 8 3-3 20, Stuck 6 2-3 15, Whitaker 0 1-4 1.
Totals: 22-49/10-18/59. 3-pointers (5-14): Streets 3, Stuck 1, Newland 1.
1 2 3 4 OT F
Ada 10 14 15 15 4 58
Ridg 20 8 18 8 5 59
JV: No game.
Ada visits Fort Jennings (0-1) Saturday evening, November 30, with the JV bout tipping off at 6 p.m, The Musketeers lost their opener at Arlington 62-41 Friday night.
"Fort Jennings has a new coach (Todd Hoehn) but I think they are running a similar system to last year," said Cook. "They have an absolute moose in the middle who will be tough for us.
"My only concern is the turnaround time, with back-to-back games after we expended a lot of energy tonight."
Musketeer post Evan Hoersten scored 28 points for FJ at Ada in a 61-55 loss to the Bulldogs last season.
