By Chris Yow
FRANKLIN — Destin Wade did everything he could to give his team a chance to win on Friday night at Page, but Summit was unable to cap their furious comeback, falling 64-52 in District 11-AAA play.
Trailing 48-46 with under four minutes to play, Wade blocked a Patriots’ shot and drove the length of the floor where he went up for a shot, but was contacted by a defender. Wade, however, was whistled for the offensive foul. On the ensuing possession, Page’s Gunner Gist knocked down a 3-pointer to extend the lead and it was all Patriots from there.
Two possessions later, Tre Hunter made a move to the baseline where he jumped and threw the ball at the defender in hopes of retaining possession with an out-of-bounds call. Instead, Hunter was assessed a technical foul for slamming the ball to the floor as he was whistled for stepping on the end line.
Konata Werts was also assessed a technical foul in the fourth quarter following his fifth foul of the game for showing his disapproval of the call.
Summit coach Jim Fey was unhappy with his team’s reaction from his team to the adversity, but noted the difficulty in keeping composure in that situation.
“It’s obviously unacceptable,” he said. “But I put a lot of it on the atmosphere because you have some people involved over there who wanted to feed the fire.”
Wade carried the team on his shoulders in the second half, scoring nine straight points amidst an 11-0 run for the Spartans to start the third quarter.
Visibly fatigued, Wade and his team turned to Andrew Smith, who knocked down a pair of long jumpers to keep momentum on the Spartans’ side. Summit took the lead 30-29 with 4:53 to go in the quarter and led 40-39 heading to the fourth.
“I didn’t sub as well as I would’ve liked to there,” Fey said. “(Wade) has had to carry a lot of responsibility out there for us.”
Summit got off to a good start, trading buckets with the hosts before Page closed the first quarter and opened the second on a 14-4 run to stretch their lead to 11 points before the Spartans were able to stop the bleeding with a Wade free throw.
Summit battled back in the quarter, cutting the lead to six at the break, though it could have been closer with better success from the charity stripe. The Spartans were 5-of-10 from the free throw line in the second quarter, and finished the game 6-of-14 — a 43% mark from the line.
Fey was pleased with his team’s effort in the loss, but less-so with the Spartans’ execution.
“Our effort has been there all season, but we have to execute better if we want to get out of the district tournament,” he said.
Summit will likely travel to Ravenwood in the tournament next Friday night with an 8 p.m. tip.
Page boys 64, Summit 52
S 12 11 17 12 — 52
P 18 11 10 25 — 64
Summit (52) — Andrew Smith 10, Destin Wade 21, Bradley Stewart 2, Tre Hunter 6, Konata Werts 5, Brady Pierce 2, CJ Jones 4, Marcus White 2
Page (64) — Grant Snider 3, Andres Casella 8, Gunner Gist 10, Thomas Seaman 15, Joey Cuculla 10 Ryan Lange 4, Jaime Hernandez 14
3-pointers — Summit 2 (Wade, Werts), Page 4 (Gist 2, Snider, Casella)
Lady Pats pull away from Summit late
Page used a 20-2 run over the course of six game minutes in the third and fourth quarters to come from five point behind to well in control of the opening game on Friday.
Perhaps an omen for how the rest of the night would go, a Summit fan was ejected in the fourth quarter from the gymnasium for vehemently voicing his displeasure of an offensive foul called against the Spartan women, and moments later Summit coach John Wild was also assessed a technical foul for speaking his peace about the same call.
Page’s McKenzie Cochran, who finished with a game-high 24 points, knocked down the two free throws, but Summit was able to force a turnover and Delaney Noe drew a foul. Noe hit both free throws to stop the 18-0 run the Lady Patriots were enjoying at that point.
Page was 13-of-18 from the stripe in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
With the loss, Summit fell to 10-4 in district play and to fourth in 11-AAA standings with games against Ravenwood and Dickson County remaining on the schedule.
Page girls 62, Summit 48
S 12 9 15 12 — 48
P 8 13 15 26 — 62
Summit (48) — Myah Kratzig 2, Delaney Noe 11, Bergen Allee 14, Claudette Runk 9, Cydney Wright 2, Ellie Colson 2, Nicole Rizane 8
Page (62) — Braley Bushman 6, Lili Walken 12, McKenzie Cochran 24, Abigail Ward 7, Mary Claire Pike 7, Sadie Porter 6
3-pointers — Summit 9 (Noe 2, Allee 3, Runk 3, Rizane), Page 5 (Cochran 2, Ward 2, Pike)