RANDY HISNER
WZBD.com
The South Adams Starfires’ game against Fort Recovery Tuesday night at the Stardome turned out to be one of those good news/bad news situations.
The bad news was that the Starfires, plagued by seven fourth-quarter turnovers, blew a 40-32 lead and lost to the Indians 52-46.
The good news? South Adams fans witnessed Macy Pries hitting a fifteen-foot jumper at the 3:45 mark of the fourth quarter to score her 1,277th career point and break the South Adams girls’ career scoring record. The old record of 1,275 was set by Lexi Dellinger in 2018.
Pries remembers idolizing Dellinger. “It’s a big honor, knowing that Lexi was such a good player, and me looking up to her when I was in middle school,” Pries said.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time,” she added. “All the hard work has paid off, so it feels good.”
Pries is a stellar multi-sport athlete who excels in volleyball and softball in addition to basketball, but she finds time to work on her game throughout the year. “Many, many early-morning workouts, late workouts, long drives to work with trainers, and working with trainers here at South Adams,” she said.
The record-breaking shot gave Pries 21 points, and she scored four more to give her a game-high 25 and push her total to 1,281. That’s 46 points shy of Trent Lehman’s 1,327 points, the South Adams boys’ record. With two regular-season games left and at least one sectional contest, Pries has a good shot at that overall mark too.
Turnovers cost the Starfires throughout the game. They had six in the first quarter but, thanks largely to eight points from Pries, still managed to hold a 14-12 lead at the first buzzer. Seven turnovers in the second quarter were too much to overcome, though, and the Indians outscored them 13-8 to take a 25-22 lead at the half.
The Starfires finally got a good handle on the ball in the third period, turning it over only three times. They got hot from the field too, going 8-for-10 on two-point attempts. Pries scored eight points and Liz Gerber added six as the Starfires won the quarter by an 18-7 margin and took a 40-32 lead.
But the turnover bug bit again in the fourth quarter. Five miscues in the first three and a half minutes gave Fort Recovery an opportunity to go on an 11-0 run and regain the lead for the first time since early in the third period.
Three-pointers were the Indians’ weapon of choice during the rally. Thirty seconds into the quarter Cali Wendel, who led her team with 18 points, hit a three from well beyond the top of the key. Sophia Guggenbiller hit a putback on the Indians’ next possession, and then Makenna Huelskamp (pictured below) drained two threes in a row, the second one putting Fort Recovery ahead 43-40 with 4:21 left.
Pries’s record-breaking jumper pulled the Starfires within one at 43-42. Karlie Niekamp followed with a free throw for the Indians, but Pries made an old-fashioned three-point play to put the Starfires on top, 45-44, with 3:11 to go.
Then came the dagger. Less than 20 seconds later, Wendel once again hit a shot from at least five feet beyond the arc, putting Fort Recovery up by two. Pries hit one of two free throws with 1:46 left, but that was the end of the Starfires’ scoring. Meanwhile, the Indians made five of six free throws, including three of four by Wendel, to pull away in the closing seconds.
South Adams coach Wayne Kreiger knew that turnovers hurt his team in the decisive fourth quarter. “That was a big, big issue with the momentum swing,” he said. The Indians’ 11-0 run to start the fourth quarter, he noted, changed the whole flow of the game. “The streaks, once they get going, that’s the momentum changer,” he said. “That run that started the fourth quarter was obviously a huge factor in the outcome.”
Despite the loss, Kreiger was all smiles about Pries’s accomplishment. He loves her dedication to the game. “Her work ethic is the best that I’ve been around,” he said. “She puts in the time to make herself better. She has worked to get where she is.”
Kreiger mentioned that it’s normal for Pries to stay after practice for extra shooting. She especially works at her free throws, since her aggressive style of play gets her to the line frequently. (She was 7-for-12 Tuesday, and according to a recent MaxPreps leaderboard, she is among the top ten in the nation in free throws attempted.) Usually, she will not leave the gym until she has made ten free throws in a row.
The loss dropped the South Adams record to 6-13. Fort Recovery improved to 5-8.
Liz Gerber scored 11 points for the Starfires on 4-of-6 shooting from the floor and 3-of-5 from the free throw line. Lanie Trausch added six points, Bekah Patterson four.
Huelskamp had 16 for the Indians, including eight in the fourth quarter. Niekamp tallied eight, Saige Leuthold six.
South Adams will host ACAC rival Woodlan Saturday.
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