by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — In the end it was just a game. Someday, when people will look in the record books, a 51-43 first round Haven Tournament loss to Kingman will not stand out as anything extraordinary.

But on this Thursday afternoon for the Wellington High School girls basketball team it symbolized something much, much bigger. It was about returning back to business.

Kenny Adams Jr.

For the Lady Dukes, it was their first game back after the passing of one their most ardent supporters. Kenny Adams was not only the father of head coach Eric Adams, but was the team’s stat man since 2008 when his granddaughter Erianne Adams started playing WHS basketball as a freshman.

Wellington head coach Eric Adams was not in attendance. He was attending the funeral of his dad, who died Sunday and was laid to rest Thursday.

Perhaps, it was only fitting that the Wellington girls basketball team was playing a game on the same day of Kenny’s funeral.

Kenny loved the Lady Dukes. 

Eric will return to coach the Crusaders today when Wellington battles Rose Hill in the consolation second round game at 4:30 p.m.

On Thursday, WHS assistant coach Randy Strothman coached the team. Strothman is a former head WHS girls basketball coach himself from the 1990s. Eric said he and his family sat and listened to Adrienne Young on the radio Wednesday afternoon at their home.

Wellington would fall behind 11-0 to start the game, but would comeback to take the lead in the third quarter. In the end, Kingman would pull away for a victory

“Randy told me the girls were trying so hard to get a win in the first quarter that they couldn’t hit a shot” Eric said. “Then afterwards there were plenty of tears in the locker room.”

It’s been an interesting two weeks for everyone. The Wellington girls hadn’t played a game for 13 days. In that time frame, the coach lost his dad and the girl players lost their friend.

“I’ll never forget how the team went together to see my dad at the hospital,” Eric said. “It was an emotional moment. My dad told them ‘he loved them.’”

Eric hasn’t been with his team the past two weeks because of the family situation. But his goal now, is to strive for some sort of normalcy with the team. He will start that journey today against a Rose Hill team that has a deceiving record. Yes the team has a 1-10 record, but is has played a tenacious schedule.

“I was looking at their schedule and thinking ‘oh, my,’” Eric said. “They lost to Hesston, Garden Plain, Buhler, McPherson. And none of those games were blowouts.”

On Thursday, Kingman, which won its home tournament in December, sported a couple of freshman twins, who are pretty good and gave the Crusaders fits all afternoon.

Kingman opened with an 11-0 run, but Wellington would narrow the margin to 18-17 at the half.

In the third quarter it was a scoring marathon. Wellington had a one point lead for a couple of moments in the second half, but Kingman would outscore Wellington 16-14 and 17-12 in the third and fourth quarter.

For the game, Lauryn Snipes had 14. Avery Rusk 12, Tayland French 5, Shayland French 4, Shelbie Wright 4, Taylor Zimmerman 2 and Mariah Moore 2.

Rose Hill lost to Haven in the other game 43-29.

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