Miami Trace’s Lady Panthers opened defense of its South Central Ohio League title Saturday in this, the final season of the storied, old league, traveling to Clinton-Massie to take on the Lady Falcons.
Miami Trace won the game, 55-32.
The Lady Panthers are now 3-0 overall, while Clinton-Massie levels its record at 2-2.
Juniors Victoria Fliehman and Tanner Bryant shared team high-scoring honors for Miami Trace, each with 12 points.
Senior Hanna Reisinger scored nine and sophomore Becca Ratliff sank a pair of three-point field goals for six points.
Clinton-Massie sophomore Faith Cottrell was the game’s leading scorer with 14 points.
Sophomore Emily Ireland scored six points and senior Madilyn Newton had five.
Miami Trace senior Samantha Ritenour led her team with six rebounds, including four offensive boards.
Reisinger led with five steals and Fliehman led with four assists.
Miami Trace’s defense created problems for Clinton-Massie in the early going.
The Lady Falcons turned the ball over on their first four possessions.
Sophomore Cassidy Lovett hit the first shot of the game for Miami Trace just 18 seconds into the contest.
Miami Trace did get into some early foul difficulty as first Ritenour and then Bryant picked up two first quarter fouls and were subbed in for by junior Morgan Miller and freshman Shaylee McDonald.
First Miller, then McDonald hit three-point shots for Miami Trace, two of seven for the Lady Panthers on this day.
Fliehman hit a three and Bryant, upon her return, scored to give Miami Trace a 13-3 lead.
Senior Tori Riley scored and another Falcon turnover led to a quick score by Bryant to give the Lady Panthers a 17-3 lead at the end of the first quarter. Massie would spend the next three quarters attempting to play catch-up.
Clinton-Massie had 10 turnovers in the first quarter and began the second quarter with turnovers on their first two possessions.
The Falcons got on the board with a pair of free throws from Ireland.
With another bucket from Miller and a three-pointer from Reisinger, Miami Trace opened a 25-5 lead with 4:27 to play in the first half.
Cottrell scored on back-to-back trips and Brooke Rose helped make it a 6-0 Massie run as the Lady Falcons began to find the shooting range.
Reisinger and Ireland traded baskets to make it 27-14.
A free throw from Bryant and Cottrell’s bucket at the buzzer made it 28-16 Miami Trace at the half.
Scoring first in the third quarter, Clinton-Massie pulled to within 10 points of the Lady Panthers.
That was as close as the Lady Falcons could get, however, the remainder of the ball game.
Miami Trace extended its lead back to as many as 23 points in the latter stages of the third quarter.
It was 45-26 in favor of the Lady Panthers at the end of three quarters of play.
With a pair of late threes by Ratliff, Miami Trace held a 25-point lead.
Senior Sydney Leary concluded the scoring in the game for Clinton-Massie with the final tally of 55-32.
“I thought our kids played extremely hard,” Miami Trace head coach Ben Ackley said. “We came out with good energy, which is always a challenge in these early Saturday afternoon games.
“We got in a little foul trouble there in the second quarter,” Ackley said. “We had to change our rotations a little bit. We were really pleased with our kids coming off the bench. We thought they brought energy and they were a big boost to us. We’ve had a couple of good practices in a row, so today’s effort didn’t come as a surprise to us.
“We’re still having breakdowns on both ends that are a little sloppy,” Ackley said. “We lost our focus on defense for a couple of minutes at a time. Offensively, we’re still learning to play together, so, there are going to be some peaks and valleys. It’ll keep getting better; we’re only three games into the season. I thought the kids did do a better job of playing together today as a cohesive unit.”
“We start three seniors, a sophomore and a junior,” Clinton-Massie head coach Tim McGraw said. “We’re kind of a mixture. We’ve got girls in spots where they haven’t had to play before. (Miquela) Santoro carried a lot of (the load) last year.”
Santoro is a member of the Winthrop University women’s basketball team, but is currently injured, according to McGraw. Winthrop is a Division I school located in South Carolina.
“We have a lot of girls who are ready to step up and play,” McGraw said. “They are very capable of carrying on those roles, but we just ran into a very tough and very good Miami Trace team today.”
Miami Trace is back in action Wednesday at Wilmington and home on Saturday to play Hillsboro.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MT 17 11 17 10 — 55
C-M 3 13 10 6 — 32
MIAMI TRACE — Olivia Wolffe 0-0-0; Cassidy Lovett 1-0-2; Becca Ratliff 0 (2)-0-6; Hanna Reisinger 1 (1)-4-9; Shaylee McDonald 0 (1)-0-3; Morgan Miller 1 (1)-0-5; Victoria Fliehman 1 (2)-4-12; Tanner Bryant 4-4-12; Tori Evans 0-0-0; Samantha Ritenour 2-0-4; Tori Riley 1-0-2. TOTALS — 11 (7)-12-55. Free throw shooting: 12 of 14 for 86 percent. Three-point field goals: Ratliff, 2; Fliehman, 2; Reisinger, McDonald, Miller. Combined field goal shooting: 18 of 49 for 37 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 7 of 16 for 44 percent. Turnovers: 8. Rebounds: 22 (9 offensive). Assists: 12. Steals: 17.
CLINTON-MASSIE — Emily Ireland 1-4-6; Johanna Theetge 0-0-0; Faith Cottrell 4 (1)-3-14; Brooke Rose 1-1-3; Haley Conley 1-0-2; Alana Smith 0-0-0; Piper Hurlburt 0-0-0; Sydney Leary 1-0-2; Hannah Doss 0-0-0; Madilyn Newton 1 (1)-0-5; Savannah Myers 0-0-0. TOTALS — 9 (2)-8-32. Free throw shooting: 8 of 10 for 80 percent. Three-point field goals: Cottrell, Newton. Combined field goal shooting: 11 of 25 for 44 percent. Three-point field goals: 2 of 8 for 25 percent. Offensive rebounds: 4. Turnovers: 27.
Miami Trace wins j-v game against Massie
In the j-v game Saturday, Miami Trace defeated Clinton-Massie, 29-22.
The Lady Panthers improve to 2-1 overall (1-0 SCOL).
Becca Ratliff was the game’s leading scorer for Miami Trace with 13 points, including 6 of 8 from the free throw line and one three-point field goal.
Tori Evans scored seven points for Miami Trace, including one three-point shot.
Olivia Wolffe had five points, Aubrey Schwartz had three points and Lena Steele scored one.
Aubrey McCoy, Shania Villaruel and Grace Bapst also played for Miami Trace.
For Clinton-Massie, Hannah Doss led with six points.
Patience Chowning and Gabby Woods both scored five points each, Nina Lazic scored four and Alana Smith had two.
Miami Trace made 8 of 27 shots for 30 percent while Clinton-Massie made 8 of 26 shot attempts for 31 percent.
Miami Trace was 11 of 19 from the foul line for 58 percent. Massie made 6 of 11 free throw attempts for 55 percent.
Miami Trace had 15 turnovers to 22 for Clinton-Massie.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MT 9 9 8 3 — 29
C-M 5 5 8 4 — 22
