No. 13 Blanchard gets best of Ada
Feb. 27—The Ada High boys basketball team never could find any offensive rhythm in a 49-30 loss to Blanchard in a Class 4A Regional Tournament winner's bracket game Thursday night inside the Cougar Activity Center.
The 13th-ranked Lions improved to 18-5 on the year, while No. 11 Ada fell to 13-8.
First-year Ada head coach Kyle Caufield tipped his hat to Blanchard, especially on defense where the Lions held the Cougars' explosive offense to single-digit scoring in each of the final three quarters.
"I thought Blanchard did a great job of executing their game plan. They competed hard all night. You have to give credit to Blanchard for how well they defended us," he said.
The Cougars didn't help themselves at times, missing a number of close-range shots throughout the night. The finished 11-of-41 (26.8%) overall and 2-of-10 (20%) from 3-point range.
"I thought we had multiple opportunities inside to score and we couldn't get the ball to fall in the hoop," Caufield said. "We didn't do a good job of valuing our possessions and good teams make you pay for it and that is what happened tonight."
Blanchard led just 13-10 after the first quarter but steadily pulled away from there. The Lions outscored Ada 13-7 in the second quarter to push their lead to 26-17 at halftime. After three quarters, the visitors led 35-23. The Lions finished the contest on a 14-7 run.
David Johnson led Ada with seven points, four coming in the first quarter. Wyatt Brown and Camryn Reed chipped in six points apiece and Jack Morris followed with five.
It was a miserable night for Ada standout Kaden Cooper, who scored a basket in the first quarter but managed just a single free throw the rest of the way.
Senior Caleb Reed led the Lions with a game-high 22 points, while Jaxon Laminack just missed double figures with nine.
Ada played Hilldale on Friday and the survivor of that contest would play again at 3 p.m. today for a berth in next week's Class 4A Area Tournament at Checotah High School.
