Sumner nets 28 in home finale
By Cort Reynolds
The Ada High School girls basketball team rallied from a huge early deficit to beat scrappy visiting Waynesfield-Goshen 59-51 on Tuesday, February 7, in their hard-fought Senior Night home season finale.
W-G raced to a 14-0 lead, but Ada patiently chipped away and took its first lead at the third-period buzzer, then never trailed again.
Bulldog Courtney Sumner–the lone Ada Senior–poured in 28 points as Ada outscored W-G 37-24 after intermission to complete the comeback win.
A 15-2 Bulldog run in the third and fourth periods keyed the comeback.
Ada improved its record to 11-10 with the intense non-league victory. Short-handed Waynesfield seemed to tire late and fell to 9-12 after the tough loss.
"It was big for us to settle down and be patient after a slow start," said Ada first-year head coach Zack Ricker. "Our big weakness is a lack of size.
"It was nice for Courtney to go out with a win in her last home game, and she played really well," said Ricker.
CONTINUES
The Tiger girls led big early, but Sumner and the hustling Bulldogs refused to lose and kept coming.
"A couple turnovers late killed us," said Tiger veteran head coach Jocelyn Hennon. "Sumner got hot. I was really proud of how well we played together, especially early on in sharing the ball.
"We had a size advantage and did a good job of getting the ball inside," she added. "But Courtney and Olivia (Burkhart) played well and found the openings."
It was a game of long runs early on. W-G scored the first 14 points and appeared poised to run away with the game. Their box and one zone defense on Sumner stymied Ada at the start.
But the Bulldogs responded with a 10-0 flurry of their own to end the period and get back in contention.
Speedy Waynesfield guard Taylor Spencer nailed a left wing trey and a short transition banker to give the visitors a 7-0 lead, prompting an Ada timeout at the 5:46 mark.
Tiger sophomore post Raegan Hutchison then hit a turnaround shot and an 18-footer to extend the margin to 11-0. A triple by fellow sophomore Tatelyn Faraglia capped the run at 14-0.
Hustling junior Katie Sizemore got Ada on the board with a putback layin at the 1:55 juncture. Sumner sank a left side banker, followed by a left wing trey from Olivia Burkhart.
Sumner then drained a long triple from out top seven seconds before the horn to pull Ada within 14-10 after one period of play.
W-G surged back in front 18-10 as Hutchison converted a traditional three-point putback. Burkhart nailed a shot, but Faraglia splashed another trey for a 21-12 margin.
Sizemore sank a layup off a nice pass from Burkhart that penetrated the zone. Sumner then drained a long triple to creep within 21-17.
Sumner swished another long triple 3:46 before halftime to inch it to 21-20. Hutchison powered in a layup for 23-20. Faraglia then banked in a half hook with 2:07 left.
On a third try follow up effort, Faraglia sank a short lane shot for a 27-20 lead.
Sumner canned a fast break layup at the 1:10 mark to make it 27-22 at the half. She scored 13 first half points, while
Hutchison netted 11 and Faraglia 10 before intermission.
Sizemore bounced in a 10-footer from the right baseline to start the second half. Sumner swished a right corner triple to tie it 27-all with 6:30 to go. Hutchison answered with a power layup.
Faraglia banked in a short stickback for a 31-27 lead at the 5:05 mark. She then followed in her own miss to extend the lead to six 22 seconds later.
Faraglia made it six points in a row by canning two foul shots. Poling sank a layup off a steal and nice feed by Burkhart. Hutchison hit two foul shots to make it 37-29.
Tiger Peyton Webb swished a left corner shot from 18 feet. But Poling splashed a right wing trifecta to cut the lead to 39-32 and ignite a big Bulldog spurt.
Burkhart drilled a step-back three from the top right side at the 1:23 mark to eat further into the Tiger lead at 39-35.
Sumner drained a right wing triple at the 55-second mark to cut the deficit to just a point at 39-38. The 6-1 Hutchison responded by hitting a field goal. Burkhart was fouled with 13.9 seconds left in the quarter and sank one foul shot.
After the Tigers shot too soon and missed, Ada grabbed a key rebound. Burkhart dribbled quickly upcourt and drained a triple from the top of the key at the buzzer to give Ada its very first lead of the game, 42-41.
"That three was huge," Ricker agreed about the momentum-changing triple. "We needed her to be more assertive offensively."
Burkhart sank an uncontested fast break layup to start the final period.
Hutchison scored inside to end the 15-2 Ada run. But Sumner swished a triple for a 47-43 lead at the 6:07 mark. She then stole the ball and drove in for a layup and a six-point lead.
Six-foot guard Faraglia sank a short putback seconds later. Burkhart canned two foul shots with 5:23 remaining. Poling then came up with a loose ball and fed Sumner for another fast break layup.
Hutchison drained two foul shots. Poling made a layup off a nice Anna Conley pass to make it 55-47 with 3:55 remaining. Sumner created a one-girl break and outran W-G for the layup and a 10-point margin.
Sizemore took a charge to negate a potential W-G three-point play with 2:48 left. "Katie did a good job," said Ricker.
Burkhart drilled two foul shots to put the hosts up by 12. Faraglia scored inside, and Hutchison powered in another putback at the 1:12 mark. But the Tigers ran out of time and energy.
Once they got on a roll, Ada outscored W-G 28-8 in the decisive 10-minute second half stretch to erase a 39-29 deficit.
Faraglia (22 points) and Hutchison (21) combined to score 43 of the 51 Tiger points.
Burkhart supported Sumner with 18 key markers. Sumner drained six triples in her home swansong, while Burkhart sank three treys.
"It was huge for Liv to step up and hit some big baskets," said Ricker. "We were able to force them out of that box and one."
Poling tallied seven markers and Sizemore added six points to go with good work on the backboards. Freshman post Conley blocked two shots.
"With our lack of size, Anna was key defensively," said Ricker. "She played most of the second half and gave us quality minutes."
Ada canned 12 two-pointers and hit a season-high 10 three-point goals. The Bulldog girls converted five of 10 foul shots (50 percent).
W-G connected on 20 baskets, sinking 17 two-pointers and three triples. The Tigers converted eight of 12 shots from the charity stripe (67 percent).
"We played hard and are bummed about the outcome, but I never doubted our effort," said Hennon.
Ada ended up 6-5 at home this season.
The Bulldog reserves also won, 31-6. Freshman Ashley Hevlin led Ada with 17 points.
Ada 59 (11-10)
King 0 0-0 0, Gibson 0 0-0 0, Sumner 11 0-2 28, Burkhart 5 5-8 18, Poling 3 0-0 7, Andreasen 0 0-0 0, Sizemore 3 0-0 6, Conley 0 0-0 0.
Totals: 12-10/5-10/59. 3-pointers: Sumner 6, Burkhart 3, Poling 1.
W-G 51 (9-12)
Zechman 0 0-0 0, Spencer 2 0-0 5, Faraglia 9 2-3 22, DeLeon 0 1-4 1, Hutchison 8 5-5 21, Webb 1 0-0 2, Sutherland 0 0-0 0, Bigelow 0 0-0 0.
Totals: 17-3/8-12/51. 3-pointers: Faraglia 2, Spencer 1.
1 2 3 4 F
W-G 14 13 14 10 51
Ada 10 12 19 18 59
2-quarter JV: Ada 31, W-G 6.
Ada (0-7 NWC) visits Spencerville in the Northwest Conference finale Thursday, February 9. The improved Bearcats (10-11, 3-4 NWC) upset a 14-6 Allen East squad 42-40 on a Kirsten Wurst buzzer-beater last Thursday.
The sixth-place Bearcats are the only team out of nine in the league to be under .500 overall, but just barely after losing to 14th-ranked Parkway (19-2) by a 54-26 count Tuesday.
"Spencerville has grown and is solid," said Ricker. "They are balanced, and have four girls who can score."
Sumner is reportedly 30 points away from breaking the Ada girls program record for career points held by Morgan (Dumbaugh) Bass.
