Ada coach Michelle Shannon didn’t get the complete game she was looking for from her struggling Lady Cougars in Thursday night’s first-round showdown with the host Lady Racers at the Newcastle Invitational. She did, however, get the quarter she had been waiting for all season.
Leading 17-12 at halftime, the Lady Cougars played what might have been their best quarter of the season in the third, outscoring Newcastle, 16-2 on their way to a convincing 43-32 victory. With the win, Ada — which had lost eight of nine after a 3-1 start to the season — improved to 5-9 and earned a date with Washington in tonight’s semifinals at 7 p.m. The Lady Warriors advanced with a victory over Westmoore earlier in the day.
Ada forced turnovers on six of Newcastle’s first seven possessions in the third quarter to fuel a 9-0 run and took a 26-12 lead on Aaliyah Blakley’s second-chance layup off an assist from senior T’ata Roberts with 4:56 left. Ashley Bryant got a steal and layup at the 3:32 mark for the Lady Racers’ only basket in the period (in nine attempts), then the Lady Cougars finished the quarter on a 7-0 run to put the game away.
Sophomore Haley Dean started the spurt with a fast-break layup off an assist from Roberts with 1:12 left in the period, Kylie Byrd banked in a point-blank jumper off a Blakley assist to cap another fast break 28 seconds later, and Sami Jewett put an exclamation point on the quarter when she tracked down a long rebound and hit a turnaround 3-pointer from the right wing to beat the buzzer and send Ada to the fourth with a 33-14 lead.
“We talked about putting four quarters together and usually the third quarter is our weakest quarter,” Ada coach Michelle Shannon said. “I wasn’t happy with the way we closed it out (Ada didn’t have a field goal in just five attempts over the final eight minutes), but we definitely played better in the third quarter.”
Blakley scored six of eight points in an 8-2 Ada run to open the game during which the Lady Cougars consistently beat the Newcastle pressure. After a 3-pointer by Newcastle’s Brooke Davidson at the 4:30 mark made it 8-5, Ada scored the final three points in the quarter — on a layup by Blakley off an assist from Roberts with three minutes left and a Jewett free throw at the 1:12 mark — to take an 11-5 lead to the second.
The Lady Cougars recorded assists on all five of their baskets in the opening quarter, including two from Dean.
Newcastle started the second quarter with a 5-0 run capped by Katy King’s point-blank turnaround with six minutes left in the half before a 3-pointer by Kylie Byrd from the right wing at the 4:16 mark and a trey by Kyndel Carter from the left wing three minutes later — both off assists from Roberts — gave the Lady Cougars their biggest lead of the half at 17-10.
Ada settled for a 17-12 halftime lead after King hit both ends of a one-and-one 37.2 seconds before intermission. The Lady Cougars limited the Lady Racers to three field goals in 15 attempts in the first half, including 1-of-6 in the second quarter; Ada, meanwhile, hit just two shots (the treys by Carter and Byrd) in 12 second-quarter attempts and finished the half 7-of-24 from the field.
Blakley cooled off after her hot start, hitting just one of her last eight shots to finish with 12 points, but she pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds (eight in the second half) and also recorded a game-high five steals. Jewett had an outstanding game at both ends of the floor and finished with a team-best 14 points while adding five rebounds, a steal and an assist. Byrd was also solid off the bench, hitting 2-of-3 shots and finishing with seven points.
As a team, the Lady Cougars were just 13-for-42 from the field, but they held the Lady Racers to just four baskets in 24 attempts through three quarters and to nine in 35 tries for the game. Ada forced 22 turnovers while committing just 13, and Blakley’s huge rebounding effort helped the Lady Cougars to a 34-27 advantage on the boards.
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