By Cort Reynolds
DELPHOS__The visiting Ada High School boys basketball team played well but lost 60-53 at Delphos Jefferson in a Northwest Conference bout on Friday, January 19. The Bulldogs dropped to 2-11 overall and 0-4 in the NWC with the tough defeat. DJ improved to 2-9 overall and 1-2 in NWC play after the win.
The Wildcats led 17-8 after nailing multiple triples in the first period. Yet Ada rallied within 28-27 at halftime behind a 19-point second quarter.
The teams battled through a 15-15 third stanza, and headed to the fourth quarter with the feisty young Bulldogs behind just 43-42.
But Wildcat freshman Garrett Howell nailed consecutive three-point goals early in the fourth period to break a tie, and DJ maintained that six-point lead or more for the rest of the game.
Sophomore Kayleb Hickman sank a nice scoop shot and hit a free throw to keep Ada within seven points late in the game. Yet 6-4 Wildcat junior Karder Agner converted an alley-oop dunk.
Ada’s Zach Zimmerman canned a floater to pull within 58-51 in the final half minute. Delphos answered by converting a pair of free throws. Hickman then sank a stickback shot in the waning seconds to cut the final margin to seven.
Jefferson won the final quarter by a 17-11 margin.
“We battled hard but just didn’t make enough plays down the stretch,” said Ada third-year head coach Vince Halliday. “We got down early in the first couple of minutes when they made some three balls to get them going.”
Sophomore post Slade Gossman scored a career-high 19 points to pace the Ada offense. He canned seven deuces and made all five of his foul shots.
Classmate Zimmerman tallied 14 points, and soph Hickman contributed 11 markers.
Wildcat senior point guard Isaac Gallmeier canned five of six triple tries to score 15 points. Agner put down three dunks to also tally 15 points.
DJ senior Alijah Petty chipped in with a dozen markers.
“We probably played 26-27 minutes of really good ball, we just have to get it up to 32 minutes,” said Halliday. “We had another little stretch in the third quarter where we turned it over on three or four straight possessions to give the momentum back to Delphos.
“The kid (Howell) who had 20-plus points in the JV game buried a couple big three’s in the fourth quarter that kind of put us away,” he added.
Ada outscored DJ 34-26 over the middle two periods. But Delphos won the first and fourth quarters by a combined 34-19 count.
The Bulldogs connected on 13 two-pointers and drained five triples.
Ada converted 12 of 17 shots from the charity stripe (71 percent).
DJ connected on 14 two-pointers and drilled nine treys to make the difference. The Wildcats outscored Ada 27-15 behind the arc. The hosts converted five of eight from the free throw line (63 percent).
The Bulldogs lost the JV game 52-40 to drop the Ada reserve record to 8-5 overall (0-4 NWC).
Ada hosts county foe Hardin Northern (3-8) Saturday, Jan. 20.
Ada 53 (2-11, 0-4 NWC)
Zimmerman 4 4-6 14,
Hickman 4 2-4 11,
Dysert 1 0-0 3,
Green 1 1-2 3,
Blankenship 1 0-0 3,
Gossard 0 0-0 0,
House 0 0-0 0,
Conley 0 0-0 0, 0,
Gossman 7 5-5 19.
Totals: 13-5/12-17/53. 3-pointers: Zimmerman 2, Hickman 1, Dysert 1, Blankenship 1.
DJ 60 (2-9, 1-2 NWC)
Gallmeier 5 0-0 15,
Agner 7 1-2 15,
Petty 5 0-0 12,
Carder 3 1-2 7,
Houx 1 0-0 2,
Howell 2 0-0 6,
Brotherwood 0 2-2 2,
Wiltsie 0 0-0 0,
Rostorfer 0 1-2 1.
Totals: 14-9/5-8/60. 3-pointers: Gallmeier 5, Howell 2, Petty 2.
SCOREBOARD
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | FINAL | |
| ADA | 8 | 19 | 15 | 11 | 53 |
| D J | 17 | 11 | 15 | 17 | 60 |
JV: DJ 52, Ada 40.
