By Cort Reynolds
The visiting Ada High School girls basketball team raced to a 20-0 lead and cruised to a 55-19 win over county rival Ridgemont Monday evening, January 16.
The Bulldogs improved to 8-8 with the lopsided non-league victory. Meanwhile, the struggling Gopher girls fell to 0-11 with the defeat.
"We had a big lead early and it just grew from there," said Ada head coach Zach Ricker. "It gave us an opportunity to rotate girls and play with different lineups than usual.
"I felt like we shared the ball really well again tonight," he added.
Bulldog senior guard Courtney Sumner canned 11 baskets with one trey to tally a game-high 23 points.
Ada pressed its way to a 14-0 margin, led 20-0 after the opening stanza and was never threatened. Sumner netted six two-point baskets in the first quarter.
Her layup opened the scoring, followed by an Autumn Andreasen putback basket. Sumner stole a pass and made another layin. Olivia Burkhart then found a cutting Lexi Poling for a layup to provide a 10-0 lead.
Ridgemont finally got on the scoreboard when Laney Elsasser sank a basket to open the second period, making the score 20-2.
The Bulldogs sank three treys and six players scored in a 19-9 second quarter as the visitors built a 39-9 halftime bulge. Gophers Kylie Shreve and Lauren Wingfield each hit a triple in the second stanza.
Ada won the third period 12-4 as Poling scored six points.
Junior guard Burkhart netted nine points with a second-quarter triple, and sophomore guard Poling added eight markers.
Alex Gibson contributed a trey and a career-high five points.
Freshman Anna Conley and junior Andreasen tallied four points apiece.
Ridgemont canned just seven baskets, sinking four deuces and three treys. The visitors hit two of five foul shots (40 percent).
Ada connected on 26 baskets, draining 23 two-pointers and three triples. In a rare statistical oddity, the Bulldogs did not take a single foul shot in the game.
Ridgemont 19 (0-11)
Elsasser 1 0-0 2, Wingfield 2 0-0 6, Shreve 2 1-2 6, Chronister 0 1-2 1, Dondrea 2 0-1 4.
Totals: 4-3/2-5/19. 3-pointers: Wingfield 2, Shreve 1.
Ada 55 (8-8)
Hevlin 0 0-0 0, Gibson 2 0-0 5, Sumner 11 0-0 23, Burkhart 4 0-0 9, Andreasen 2 0-0 4, Poling 4 0-0 8, Sizemore 1 0-0 2, Conley 2 0-0 4, Kin 0 0-0 0, Johnston 0 0-0 0, Rockhill 0 0-0 0.
Totals: 23-3/0-0/55. 3-pointer: Sumner 1, Gibson 1, Burkhart 1.
1 2 3 4 F
Rmt 0 9 6 4 19
Ada 20 19 12 4 55
No JV game.
Ada is idle for eight days until they host traditional backyard rival Upper Scioto Valley (3-10) Tuesday, January 24.
The Bulldogs can climb over the .500 mark with their third win in a row.
With no JV game, the USV varsity tilt will tip off at 6 p.m. Ada is 3-4 at home, 4-3 on the road and 1-1 at neutral sites. The Bulldogs beat USV 55-30 in the Border Battle consolation game at Waynesfield December 30.
