Derrick Webb

Derrick is SOSA's chief content coordinator and has worked for the Chillicothe Gazette, the Portsmouth Daily Times and Eleven Warriors. He's a 15-time award-winning journalist, a self-proclaimed baseball purist, a suffering Bengals fan and has never met a stranger.

Adena builds early lead, fends off McClain in non-league action

The Warriors remain undefeated.

Derrick Webb, Staff Writer

Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.

FRANKFORT — Late in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s contest against McClain, Adena senior Emma Garrison could only sit and watch her teammates fight to keep a lead.

Over the past four years, in those same situations, Garrison has been the Warriors’ go-to player and she’s filled that role exceptionally well. She’s always had a knack for putting victories on ice.

But with a nagging injury forcing her to sit, that wasn’t going to happen. Instead, her teammates were forced to take on those responsibilities.

Adena’s Marly Halcomb scored a team-high 10 points in Wednesday’s win.
CREDIT: *Derrick Webb/SOSA*

The Tigers, to their credit, took full advantage of that. In fact, they outscored Adena by a 15-4 margin to forcefully put themselves back into the ballgame. But when the dust settled, the Warriors had managed to hold onto a 33-29 non-league victory and stay unbeaten.

And they grew up in the process of doing so.

“Tonight was a growing up experience for a lot of our girls,” Adena coach Andrew Day said. “In those situations, Emma is often our comfort blanket. So for her not to be there, it puts some girls in situations that they’re not normally in. We’ll learn from that. We’ll watch the film, see what we need to correct and we’ll grow from it. It’s a learning process and they’ll get it.”

Throughout the first two quarters, Adena (7-0) looked dominant — especially when guarding the basketball.

Led by Jacey Smith, the Warriors surrendered just five points and one field goal before taking a commanding 20-5 lead into halftime. They forced 17 turnovers and held McClain (4-2) to a 20.9 shooting percentage.

Their effort on the defensive end of the floor was the biggest difference in a true tale of two halves.

“One of the keys tonight was Jacey’s defense on [McClain’s] guards,” Day said. “She just wears people out and makes it really hard for the opponent to run any kind of offense. In the first half, holding a team like that to five points, that’s pretty remarkable. We have girls that just love the defensive end of the floor. Kiera Williams gets after it and so does Sydney Ater. Everybody has really bought into playing really hard on that end. That’s what the first half was.”

Tale of the tape

The Tigers took a 2-0 lead on the back of a basket from freshman Paisley Pryor with 6:34 to go in the first quarter. But Adena’s Kam Sowers quickly matched it with a score at the 6:03 mark.

And McClain never led again.

PHOTOS: Images from Adena’s win over McClain

Sowers’ basket was the start of a quarter-ending 9-0 run — one that included a bucket from Sydney Ater and a 3 from Marly Halcomb.

Ater dialed long distance to begin the second, making it 12-2, before hitting another trey with 3:04 to go for a 17-2 tally. When Caroline Corcoran scored with 1:35 left, the Warriors had polished off a 19-0 run that spanned over 13 minutes of game time before taking a 20-5 edge into the break.

“I love our depth,” Day said. “Even with Emma missing tonight, we were still able to play seven. It’s just about being ready when your number is called.”

McClain finally found a hint of an offensive rhythm in the third quarter, but was matched at every turn. The result was a 29-14 score heading into the fourth. But things were about to take a drastic turn.

With 4:57 remaining, Pryor cut Adena’s lead to single digits at 29-20. Lily Barnes followed suit, scoring with 3:30 to go, before Leah Lovett added a bucket for a 29-24 score. When Barnes hit the front end of two free throws, an 11-0 run had ended and the Tigers trailed by just four with just over a minute to play.

But when Smith finally ended the scoring run with two imperative free throws, coming with 26.7 seconds left, it gave Adena a 31-25 lead and was just enough to push the Warriors over the finish line … erasing a valiant comeback effort.

“Two things … we didn’t take care of the ball and we didn’t handle pressure well,” Day said. “Then, we had boxed out all night long and had kept them off the offensive glass, which was a key for us. In the fourth quarter, we didn’t do that. That’s credit to them. They played super hard. But that was the difference in the fourth quarter.”

Stat book

Statistically, Halcomb led the Warriors with 10 points and seven rebounds while Ater added nine points and five boards. Corcoran chipped in with five points and five rebounds, Sowers had three points, three rebounds and a pair of assists, and Smith totaled for rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals.

As for McClain, Pryor led the way with eight points and five rebounds while Lovett followed with seven points and five boards. Kaitlyn Jett and Lily Barnes also helped the Tigers’ cause with five points each.

McClain’s Paisley Pryor led the Tiger with eight points and five rebounds.
CREDIT: *Derrick Webb/SOSA*

What’s on tap

McClain attempts to bounce back on its home floor Saturday afternoon against Clinton-Massie. Meanwhile, Adena will look to stay unbeaten the same day, traveling to Paint Valley for a league matchup.

“I know that Paint Valley has struggled a little bit this year but they just played Southeastern really tough the other night,” Day said. “So we’re going to prepare and hopefully be ready to go.”

BOX SCORE

McClain: 2-3-9-15 — 29

Adena: 9-11-9-4 — 33

McClain: 9-43 FG, 10-16 FT, 1-10 3pt., 26 rebounds (Lovett 5, Pryor 5), 17 turnovers, 3 assists (Jett 2). Scoring: Pryor 8, Lovett 7, Barnes 5, Jett 5, Matesic 3, Wright 1.

Adena: 11-34 FG, 7-12 FT, 4-15 3pt., 28 rebounds (Halcomb 7), 19 turnovers, 10 assists (Smith 4). Scoring: Halcomb 10, Ater 9, Corcoran 5, Williams 4, Sowers 3, Smith 2.