Lady Indians Comeback Falls Short

The Lady Indians opened up their 2021 season with an impressive comeback performance. Without their most experienced starter Anna Marie Day, the Tribe had a tough task to slow down the 2-0 Whitefield Academy Wildcats.

Hannah West picked up the slack on offense early and Adair County looked much improved as they trailed the Wildcats by only 5 at the end of the first quarter.

Missed shots and turnovers plagued Adair in the second quarter and continued into the second half as Whitefield began to pull away at halftime and built an 18 point lead early in the fourth quarter. Foul trouble plagued Carli Carter and Ellie Cheatham who both fouled out with a combined 19 of AC’s 43 boards.

Midway through the fourth, the young tribe began to gel as they started to cut into the lead. Adair’s toughness and length started to wear on the Wildcats and while turnovers (29) proved worrisome, they were able to force 21 turnovers of their own. West stole the ball in a half court trap and cut the score to 55-48 with 1:11 to go.

Late in the game, the Wildcats faced some foul trouble of their own when leading scorer Allison Spieker fouled out with just under a minute to play. Without Spieker’s 31points on the floor, Adair took advantage. Led by Laney Stotts’ back-to-back threes and some missed Whitefield free throws, the lead was cut to 4 with 32 seconds remaining. A third three fell just short for Stotts with under ten seconds remaining and Whitefield Academy’s second leading scorer Sara Ritter put the game on ice following a late game foul, making the final score 60-54.

West led Adair with 18 points followed by Stotts with 14 on 4/8 shooting from beyond the arch. Cheatham fouled out with 8 points and a team leading 12 rebounds. Kaylee Campbell did the bulk of the facilitating, dishing out 7 assists and adding 9 rebounds of her own.

While Adair’s comeback efforts fell short, coach Andrew Reliford has to be excited about the effort this young team showed down the stretch. Stott’s ability to stretch the floor late was able to open up the offense which is still looking for a go-to scorer after the departure of Jadie Smith from last season. Day looks to fill the void and many of Cheatham’s missed buckets inside will eventually fall as bad luck played into a lot of missed opportunities in this game. The length and toughness of this team is going to cause problems for the competition defensively and ACHS has a bright future in girl’s basketball.