Ada hits ground running

ADA - Any concern Ada's boys basketball team might get off to a slow start because of delaying the beginning of its season a week disappeared in the first few minutes of its 85-50 win over Wapakoneta on Friday night.

The Bulldogs jumped out to a 16-2 lead to start the game, their first after the football team advanced three games into the playoffs.

And if anybody arrived late and missed it, they did it again to start the second half, running off a 13-0 streak to turn a 20-point halftime advantage into a 33-point lead.

Kyle Baker scored 27 points, including four 3-pointers, to lead five double-figures scorers for Ada. Konnor Baker scored 13, Aaron Cross had 12 points and Brandon Dysert and Matt McBride scored 10.

"The first couple minutes were a little slow, but once we knocked a little bit of the rust off, we kind of just never looked back," Ada coach Chris Sautter said.

Ada dresses only seven full-time varsity players, plus a few JV players to fill in. Despite that lack of numbers, the Bulldogs played at a fast tempo and will continue to try to make opponents play at their pace.

"We're going to push the ball up the floor. It doesn't mean we're always going to get something but the three, four or five times a game we get an easy one, that's six, eight, 10 points you wouldn't have had otherwise," Sautter said.

"We're not very deep so we have to be in good shape," he said.

Ada shot 52 percent (34 of 65) compared to 33 percent (20 of 60) for Wapakoneta. The Bulldogs had a 39-19 rebounding edge, led by Cross with eight.

Sautter still found room for improvement, though.

"We have to work harder defensively and we have to rebound the ball if we're going to get out and run like we want to," he said.

Mike Bogan led Wapakoneta (0-3) with 12 points.

"They were just better than we were. They're very athletic, they've got better players than us, they just beat us," Wapakoneta coach Scott Minnig said.

"In the first half, I don't think they shot the ball that well from the outside, they just threw it up, went and got the offensive rebound and we were very willing to let them do that. In the second half, they knocked down some open jump shots and threes, but the tone was pretty well set by that time."