Published: January 06, 2009 12:35 pm      

Ada ready to get busy

Cougar squads return from break to East Central Oklahoma Classic

Ada — After starting behind most of the other teams in this week’s East Central Oklahoma Classic, the Ada boys and girls squads are hoping to play catch-up in their first action of 2009.

Ada played just three games before the Christmas break, with the Lady Cougars winning all three and the Cougars — hit hard by graduation losses and crippled by the defection of leading scorer Colton Richardson (who quit the team) after the season began — entering the post-holiday portion of their schedule at 0-3.

“Christmas break is always nice, but at the same time I think it hurts us because we start (the season) so late,” third-year Ada girls coach Michelle Shannon said. “We’ve only played three games, and I thought we were playing well. Hopefully, we’ll pick up where we left off.”

Richardson was the only returning starter off last year’s 20-win Cougar squad, and first-year coach Ron Anderson was left with virtually no varsity experience on his roster when Richardson quit suddenly two games into the season. Like Shannon, Anderson is looking forward to getting back on the court.

“I think you always need a break, especially those guys who have been in the gym since Day 1 (of practice),” Anderson explained. “I think the break always rejuvenates everybody, but I thought we played real well in the second half against Elgin (in the third game of the season), and I would like to have kept playing.

“What hurts is that we’ve only played three games, and most teams will come into this tournament having played five or six games,” he added. “We’ve had good practices over the break, so it can go either way.”

The ECOC is part of a busy schedule for area teams as they return from the break, and it is one of six tournaments around the state this week to have drawn at least one local school.

Coalgate and Byng will send their boys and girls squads to Bethel, where the Wildcats (7-1 and ranked No. 15 in Class 3A) and Pirates (4-2) will clash in a tough opener in a rugged boys bracket that also includes Newcastle and Bethel (Nos. 9 and 10 in 4A). The Coalgate girls — who, like the boys squad, will open the 2009 portion of their schedule at home Tuesday against Kingston — will meet Heritage Hall at noon Wednesday, and the Byng girls (2-4 after winning their final two games of 2008) will open tournament play at 2:40 p.m. Thursday against Newkirk.

Elsewhere, Konawa’s boys and girls squads will be part of the field at the Wayne Tournament, Latta will be at the Lindsay Tournament, Sasakwa’s boys and girls will travel to the New Lima Invitational, and and Sulphur’s boys and girls squads are in the Marietta Tournament.

Regular-season action this week could be highlighted by the boys showdown in Coalgate between the Wildcats and seventh-ranked Kingston and Allen’s visit to Stonewall Friday.

The Ada girls come into the ECOC off an impressive 72-47 victory over Elgin, and the Lady Cougars have climbed to No. 10 in the Class 5A rankings after being unranked when the season began.

“I felt like we proved we belonged (in the rankings) when we beat Elgin — we scored 72 points, and every kid on my bench played,” said Shannon, whose new-look club will face 9-1 Wright City in an attractive first-round matchup of fourth and fifth seeds at 1:40 p.m. Thursday at the Cougar Activity Center. “Hopefully, we can have a good showing this week. I’m not out to get anyone’s attention — I just want to get better every week. If we get better every week, we’re heading toward our ultimate goal

“You can’t put a lot of stock in those rankings,” she said. “No matter where you go in the playoffs, you still have to beat the best teams.”

Shannon’s bench will also see a lot of action on this week, since the Ada junior varsity will replace God’s Academy (which dropped out last week) as the No. 8 seed in the tournament.

“It’s good for our kids to get some playing time, but at the same time you hate for that to happen, because it looks like you’re just piecing things together, and that wasn’t the case,” Shannon said. “God’s Academy committed to come, but for financial reasons they weren’t able to attend. Our JV team is undefeated right now, so they’re not bad.”

Edmond North (No. 9 in Class 6A) and Choctaw (2-2) are the top two seeds on the girls side after meeting for the tournament title last year (with North winning), and Shawnee (4-3) is the third seed. North will play the Ada JV at 11 am. Thursday at East Central University’s Kerr Activities Center, which will also be the site of the game between Shawnee and sixth seed Ponca City (4-2) at 12:20 p.m. Choctaw will meet seventh seed Idabel (3-0) at 3 p.m. in Thursday’s other girls contest at the CAC.

Ada is the No. 6 seed in the boys bracket, and the Cougars will meet Class 6A Sapulpa (2-4 and the tournament’s third seed) at 12:20 p.m. Thursday at the CAC. Top seed Choctaw (2-2) and eighth seed Wright City (6-4) will kick off boys action at 11 a.m. at the CAC, and games at the Kerr Center on the opening day of the tournament include Shawnee (8-2 and seeded No. 4) against fifth seed Idabel (0-4) at 1:40 and second seed Ponca City (4-2) against Lindsay, Texas, at 3 p.m.

Despite his team’s slow start, Anderson said playing three games in three days will give his inexperienced club a chance to grow up in a hurry.

“It’s hard to say right now, but I’m looking at it as a positive that we get three more games under our belt,” he explained. “If we can get a couple of wins, it could turn out as a real good thing for us.

“The rest of the season is going to hit us hard,” he added. “Up to now, we’ve had a game a week, and now we’re going to play at least two games a week. It’s really going to change our pace. We’re going to be busy for the rest of the season, and hopefully we can get some victories in. If we can get our first victory, there’s no telling what will happen from there.”