By RICK SPRUNGER
Southern Wells dropped a 53-26 decision to visiting South Adams Friday night in its annual pink-out night for breast cancer awareness.
“We didn’t win the game, but we raised a lot of money,” said Southern Wells coach Jessica Killingbeck afterwards. “The girls do a good job of that every year.”
Between the lines, however, things came apart early for Southern Wells.
The Raiders took an early 3-2 lead but then watched South Adams run off 13 unanswered points for a 15-3 advantage early in the second period.
Southern Wells was never able to get closer than nine points after that.
It was 29-14 at halftime, and the Starfires then ran away and hid in the third quarter.
Credit the South Adams defense and its team leader, Macy Pries, on offense.
Pries scored 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and she added five first-half steals to get her team off and running.
She was also poking away numerous passes and was a force at both ends of the floor.
“We tried to go away from her as well as we could,” said Killingbeck of the South Adams star. “But she did a good job of reading our passes. She’s just a great player.”
South Adams got the early jump on the Raiders and did so with a suffocating defense that held Southern Wells to 1-for-8 shooting in the first quarter along with six turnovers.
The Raiders got only a three-pointer by Gracie Reeves with 5:11 left in that disastrous first quarter and didn’t score again until Colleena Reeves drove the left side of the lane with 7:33 remaining in the second period.
“They got up on us on defense,” commented Killingbeck. “We didn’t shoot well tonight (8-for-38 for a .211 shooting percentage). And we had a lot of turnovers (22). We need to take better care of the ball in the backcourt.”
Both teams came out of the lockerroom chilly.
Southern Wells started with three misses and two turnovers, South Adams with two misses and a miscue.
Pries finally broke the scoring ice for South Adams at the 5:44 mark of the first frame; Reeves answered with her three for that short-lived Raider lead.
After that, it was all South Adams, and right in the center of it was Pries.
She scored eight first-quarter points, including a five-footer in the lane with 0:51 left and an immediate steal and layup.
She then dropped a pretty pass to a wide-open Emmerson Smith in the corner for a buzzer-beating three and started the second quarter with another assist on a Laney Trausch bucket underneath.
“Macy was certainly the focal point for a lot of things that happened tonight,” acknowledged her coach, Wayne Krieger.
She converted two more steals into layups in the second period and closed the first half with a 19-footer at the buzzer to give the Starfires that 15-point halftime lead.
And with South Adams holding Southern Wells to just three free throws in the third quarter while limiting the Raiders to 0-for-11 shooting from the field and forcing six more turnovers, it became a matter of just playing out the string.
Gracie Reeves led Southern Wells in scoring with 12 points on 4-for-5 shooting.
Elizabeth Gerber joined Pries in double figures for South Adams with 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting while pulling down nine rebounds.
“We’re looking at the big picture, which is the sectional,” said Killingbeck later, knowing that South Adams plays a class above it in the tournament. “We feel like we have a good shot at cutting down the nets.”
There was no junior varsity game as South Adams has no JV team.
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SOUTH ADAMS 53, SOUTHERN WELLS 26
at Southern Wells
SOUTH ADAMS (6-11, 3-2 ACAC): Macy Pries 12-28 3-4 27, Bekah Patterson 1-5 0-0 2, Elizabeth Gerber 6-9 2-2 14, Emmerson Smith 2-11 0-0 6, Laney Trausch 2-6 0-0 4, Grace Baker 0-0 0-0 0, Danika Brown 0-0 0-0 0. TOTAL: 23-59 5-6 53.
SOUTHERN WELLS (4-12, 0-4 ACAC): Aubrey Meyer 0-2 0-0 0, Colleena Reeves 1-8 0-2 2, Gracie Reeves 4-5 1-2 12, Kenzie Paxson 1-3 0-0 2, Ashlie Needler 1-10 4-4 6, Karlee Warner 0-4 0-0 0, Kyah Thomas 0-3 0-0 0, Erika Beavans 0-2 1-2 1, Kaylea Coffel 1-1 0-0 3. TOTAL: 8-38 6-10 26.
South Adams 13 16 11 13 — 53
Southern Wells 3 11 3 9 — 26
Three-point shooting: South Adams 2-11 (Pries 0-2, Patterson 0-1, Gerber 0-1, Smith 2-6, Trausch 0-1), Southern Wells 4-21 (Meyer 0-2, C. Reeves 0-5, G. Reeves 3-4, Needler 0-2, Warner 0-4, Thomas 0-3, Coffel 1-1). Rebounds: South Adams 38 (Pries 10, Gerber 9, Patterson 6, Smith 5), Southern Wells 31 (Needler 7, C. Reeves 6, Meyer 5, Paxson 5). Turnovers: South Adams 11, Southern Wells 22. Personal fouls: South Adams 9, Southern Wells 9. Fouled Out: Needler. Technical fouls: None.
Junior Varsity: None.
