SPENCERVILLE — The Ada Lady Bulldogs used a 7-point scoring spurt during the first minute of the fourth quarter to take control of their Northwest Conference encounter with Spencerville Thursday night and took advantage of extremely frigid shooting by the Lady Bearcats for a 52-44 win in “The Walk-In Closet” in Spencerville.

“We didn’t hit from the field or from the foul line,” a disappointed Spencerville coach Jim Baumgartner noted.

The Lady ’Cats made a mere 4-of-19 from the charity stripe for an extremely chilly 21 percent and 19-of-50 from the field (38 percent). That was the first Achilles’ heel.

“We had a defensive breakdown to start the fourth quarter,” Baumgartner lamented. “Ada scored seven points in the first 1:10 of the fourth quarter.”

That was Achilles’ heel number 2 for the Lady Bearcats.

Throw in that Lady Bulldog standout Kara Dysert scored 19 points and the Lady Bearcats just could not retrieve the momentum they had worked so hard to gain.

Dysert, in fact, was the main thorn in the Spencerville side during that spree. She started the bananza by connecting on a triple with 7:38 left. Amanda Fullom goaled with 7:21 left and Dysert ended the nightmare for the Lady Bearcats by connecting on a fielder with 6:50 left to give the momentum to the Hardin County guests. Baumgartner called a timeout to try and settle his charges down.

To their credit, the Spencerville quintet did not call it an evening. Anna Raines finally broke the drought with a basket at 6:33 and the senior converted a steal with 4:38 left to get the hosts within 43-39. After a freebie by Miranda Archer, Amanda Warnecke’s rebound bucket pulled Spencerville within 44-41 with 4:05 left. But they were forced to foul in an attempt to get the ball back and Ada was up to the challenge from the free-throw line, sinking six from there in the last 4:05.

“Dysert did a nice job rebounding,” Baumgartner noted.

Raines’ goal with 5:13 remaining in the first period knotted the contest at six. Then behind Dysert’s four and a free toss by Morgan Dumbaugh, Ada took a 5-point advantage with 3:20 left.

“Dumbaugh did a nice job on driving and dishing off assists, or hitting her own shots,” Baumgartner commented.

Spencerville, however, was not fazed by the full-court press put on by the visitors. Raines’ four and two by Kirsten Cox tied the tilt at 12 with 1:38 left in the first quarter. A Fullom free throw with 1:11 remaining gave the Lady Bulldogs a 13-12 pad after one stanza.

The back-and-forth nature of the contest continued in the second period. Ada used balanced scoring to take a 18-14 lead. Then it was time for Spencerville to counter-rally for a 3-point margin with 44 ticks left before halftime. That lead was trimmed to one at intermission as Dysert sank 1-of-2 charity throws with 6.8 ticks left in the second.

Warnecke’s fielder with 6:14 remaining in the third gave Spencerville a 24-23 pad, which proved to be their last. Two Dysert goals and a steal and layup by Kristin Elliott gave the visitors a 5-point edge. Spencerville did not stop battling and a hoop by Regina Brenneman pulled the Lady ’Cats within 36-35 after three.

“Ada played good man-to-man defense,” Baumgartner noted.

The Lady Bulldogs improve to 10-7 (3-4 in the NWC) and did not exactly set the world on fire with their shooting, either, sinking 19-of-48 from the field (40 percent) and 13-of-29 from the charity stripe (45 percent). They made 28 turnovers to Spencerville’s 27.

“We played a sloppy game,” Baumgartner concluded. “We never got into a flow all night.”

The Lady Bearcats outrebounded Ada 30-28. Raines shared game-scoring honors with 19 for the hosts. Spencerville slips to 1-14 (0-7 in the NWC) and will journey down SR 66 to do battle with the Lady Cardinals of New Bremen Tuesday evening.

The Lady Bulldogs will entertain the Lady Lancers of Lincolnview in a Northwest Conference battle Thursday evening.