Jonathan Alder’s Melissa Walbom goes up for a basket against Kenton Ridge Saturday. The Lady Pioneers rolled to an 89-31 victory. (Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
There are a great deal of slang words and phrases that are used to describe what happens in the world of sports.
One of them for the game of basketball is “sharing the sugar.”
It’s a phrase that means moving the ball around and allowing as many of your teammates to score as much as possible.
The early-season juggernaut that is the girls hoop squad from Jonathan Alder High School has been very good at that phase of the game.
It was evident again Saturday afternoon during the Lady Pioneers’ 89-31 victory over Kenton Ridge.
It was the third consecutive game in which Alder has scored 80 or more points.
Jonathan Alder put 25 assists on the stat sheet, including 14 from Sydney Bourquin.
Earlier in the week, Bourquin became the Lady Pioneers’ all-time assists leader during a victory over St. Paris Graham.
Her numbers against the Cougars on Saturday put her at 350 assists for her career.
“We shared the ball very well today,” said head coach Steve Cawley as his team improved to 4-0 overall and 1-0 in the Central Buckeye Conference’s Kenton Trail Division. “We work hard to get the ball to the open shooter and we’ve done that pretty well.”
That sense of sharing led to Alder finishing the game with five players in double figures.
Abby Jones led with 19 points, followed by Melissa Walbom-16, Mary Ferrito-15, Bourquin-13 and Sophie Zawodny-10.
Emma Shepherd came up two points shy of double figures with eight.
The game was basically a blowout from the opening stanza.
JA took an 11-2 lead when Bourquin bounced the ball for a backdoor assist on Ferrito’s basket just a couple of minutes into the contest.
Baskets from Kenton Ridge’s Zoey Taylor and Ellie Shinkle later reduced the Cougars’ deficit to 15-8.
That was as close as the visitors from Clark County would get the rest of the day.
Jonathan Alder’s suffocating press resulted in a number of Cougar turnovers that led to JA transition baskets.
The Lady Pioneers’ stiff man-to-man defense also shut down driving and passing lanes in Kenton Ridge’s halfcourt offense.
That made scoring opportunities few and far between for Kenton Ridge.
“Our defense forced Kenton Ridge to speed up faster than it wanted to go,” said Cawley. “Even when they had what people call unforced turnovers, I actually believe it was our defense that had something to do with that.”
Walbom scored a pair of baskets off transition down the stretch as JA (which will travel to Urbana on Wednesday) took a 29-8 lead into the second quarter.
There was no letup to the Lady Pioneers’ pressure, even though Cawley began making use of his bench.
“I loved the fact that we came out right from the start and played with intensity and a lot of focus,” he said. “We didn’t do that early in the year against Bishop Ready (a game JA won 84-26). I think the girls learned a lesson from that.”
JA’s play was so intense the Cougars did not reach double-figure scoring until Joshlyn Johnson’s basket nearly two minutes into the second quarter.
By that time, Alder had built a 36-11 lead and had the game well in hand.
That did not, however, stop the Lady Pioneers from racking up the points.
Shepherd hit a three-pointer and nailed another jumper to push JA out to a 45-11 lead.
Bourquin, Jones and Ferrito were among those to tally assists as the JA offense continued to roll.
Zawodny buried a three-pointer to increase Jonathan Alder’s halftime lead at 54-17.
Alder’s defense kept the Cougars from adding to their side of the scoreboard for the first portion of the third stanza.
Elli Schleinitz broke Kenton Ridge’s cold spell with a trifecta.
That did very little to put a dent in the Lady Pioneers’ advantage, which had grown to 66-20.
Alder took an 80-23 lead into fourth quarter and had its substitute players finish the game.
Jonathan Alder
Jones 9-0-19, Walbom 8-0-16, Ferrito 7-1-15, Bourquin 6-1-13, Zawodny 4-1-10, Shepherd 3-0-8, S. Bushong 1-0-3, Wilson 1-1-3, Heisler 1-0-2, K. Bushong 0-0-0, Gray 0-0-0. Totals 40-4-89.
Three-point goals: Shepherd 2, Jones 1, Zawodny 1, S. Bushong 1.
Kenton Ridge
Freeman 2-6-10, Shinkle 2-0-4, Taylor 2-0-4, Avery 1-1-3, Schleinitz 1-0-3, Johnson 1-0-2, Ruhris 1-0-2, Rose 1-0-2, Hall 0-1-1, Dehart 0-0-0, Stathopoulous 0-0-0. Totals 11-8-31.
Three-point goal: Schleinitz 1.