USV girls top Ada for 2nd time

ADA — Leading Ada by just three points midway through the third quarter, the Upper Scioto Valley Lady Rams went on a 15-2 run into the fourth, giving them a 16-point advantage.

Ada made a late push with a 10-2 run, cutting the Rams’ lead to eight, but the USV held on down the stretch to earn a 48-36 victory over their county rival.

“It’s a huge win,” USV coach Travis Donley said.

“We beat them earlier in the year in the holiday tournament, so to beat a team twice says a lot. It’s not easy to do no matter who you’re playing. We were pretty banged up, playing with six girls tonight – we’ve got an injury and sickness going.

“I was very proud of them. It means a lot going forward for us,” Donley continued.

“I saw a lot of good things out of the girls tonight. We did some things we haven’t done all year.We still got a lot to clean up, obviously, and that will come with maturity and age.”

The win improves USV’s record to 2-12, while Ada falls to 1-16.

The Rams were led by Allison Moore who racked up 20 point. Briona Hurley also hit double figures with 11.

Miranda Wills’ 15 points were a team high for Ada, while Kirsten Poling scored 11.

As a team, the Bulldogs were 11 of 29 from the free-throw line, while USV was 10 of 13.

“We struggled to score the whole game,” Ada coach Morgan Bass said.

“They hit free throws, we didn’t. Moore for USV killed us – she had a couple good isolations but then second chance opportunities.

“I think we psyched ourselves out. The girls were excited, we just psyched ourselves out,” Bass continued.

“We’re making passes where we’re trying to pass through people. That’s a frustrating one for sure, because I felt like we should have won.”

The Rams got out to a good start in the contest, with Moore and Hurley completing back-to-back three-point plays to go up 8-1 just two minutes into the game.

But a 7-0 run by the Bulldogs cut the lead to just two at the end of the first eight minutes.

The Rams got back on their feet offensively in the second quarter, pushing the lead to 16-10 before Ada’s Timber Blankenship hit back-to-back buckets to close the gap back to two.

The teams went back and forth for the remainder of the half, with the Rams holding a 20-16 lead after two quarters.

With USV leading 25-19 with 4:13 to go in the third, Wills drilled a 3-pointer to bring her team back to within one possession.

But the 3-point deficit was as close as the Bulldogs would come the rest of the night as a bucket by USV’s Haylie Martin kicked off a 9-0 run for the Rams.

“Every time we started to make a run, we would just do something to hurt ourselves,” Bass said.

Four points into the run, a big 3-pointer by Hurley swung all momentum in favor of USV.

“(Hurley) can shoot it, we’ve just got to give her some space to get it off,” Donley said.

“We ran a designed play for her coming out of one of the timeouts in the third quarter and she hit a big 3. She can knock them down and I have confidence in her, we’ve just got to get some good screens to get her open.”

Up 34-24 to start the final quarter, Hurley drilled another 3 to keep the momentum going, helping the Rams to an eventual 40-24 lead.

But the Bulldogs began upping the pressure for the remainder of the contest, causing problems for the Rams and resulting in turnovers and scoring opportunities the other way.

“We tend to struggle sometimes with intense pressure,” Donley said.

“Avery Sanders, who fouled out, helps bring the ball down sometimes, and that hurt us. With six players, then down to five – at one point we were down to four – and we just made some silly mistakes, just didn’t take care of it as well as we should have.”

The Bulldogs hit a bucket and eight free throws during the course of a 10-2 run that brought them to within eight points late in the contest.

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USV (48)

Moore 9 2-3 20, Hurley 4 1-1 11, Sanders 2 3-4 7, Martin 3 0-0 6, Grener 0 2-2 2, Lee 0 2-3 2.

Totals: 18 10-13 48.

Three-point goals: 2 (Hurley 2).

Ada (36)

Wills 4 6-12 15, Poling 4 3-6 11, Blankenship 3 0-3 6, George 1 0-1 2, Light 0 1-3 1, Waugh 0 1-4 1.

Totals: 12 11-29 36.

Three-point goals: 1 (Wills).

Score by quarters

USV     10        10        14        14        –           48

A          8          8          8          12        –           36

By TY THAXTON
Times staff writer