After winning the McDonald’s Holiday Tournament to end 2016 and posting a record of 7-2 in that part of the season, the Miami Trace Panthers opened 2017 with a home game against the Mustangs of Lynchburg-Clay High School Tuesday night.
The Panthers continued with their winning ways, posting a 64-43 victory.
Miami Trace senior DeAndre Pettiford was the game’s leading scorer with a season-high 24 points.
Seniors Tyrae Pettiford scored 13 and Blake Pittser added 10.
For the Mustangs, senior Joe Giordano led with 20 points. He also had 11 rebounds.
Junior Eric McLaughlin had 18 points and 18 rebounds for Lynchburg-Clay. Each of those players blocked one shot. McLaughlin had one slam dunk.
For Miami Trace, Tryae Pettiford led with eight rebounds. Pittser had seven, senior Seth Leach had seven, DeAndre Pettiford had six (including five offensive boards) and Carter had six rebounds.
Neither team shot the ball particularly well Tuesday.
The Panthers hit 26 of 70 field goal attempts for 37 percent. Behind the three-point line, Miami Trace was 4 of 21 for 19 percent.
The Mustangs sank 15 of 48 field goal attempts for 31 percent. Lynchburg-Clay was 7 of 28 from three-point range for 25 percent.
Both teams were very cold from the field to begin the game.
The score was tied, 4-4 nearly five minutes and 30 seconds into the game.
At the end of the first quarter, the Panthers led, 10-8.
The Mustangs tied the game 10-10 one minute into the second quarter.
That was the final tie score of the contest.
The Panthers went on an 11-2 run to take a 21-12 lead midway through the second quarter.
Points off of turnovers was a key stat in the game.
Miami Trace had 20 steals and the Mustangs had a total of 25 turnovers. The Panthers scored 19 points off of turnovers.
The Mustangs had zero points off of turnovers. Lynchburg-Clay had five steals and the Panthers had a total of just nine turnovers for the game.
“Defensively, the last three games, we done some things with our pressure that have been pleasing to see,” Miami Trace head coach Rob Pittser said. “Tonight, the pressure was really, really good to us. It caused them to get out of sorts at points and turn the ball over a little bit more, I’m sure, than they wanted to. That got us some easy (baskets).
“If you can get that easy stuff through the pressure, especially the full-court variety, that allows you to kind of build some leads up and we were able to do that tonight,” Pittser said.
“I think the pressure just got to us and wore us out,” Lynchburg-Clay head coach Matt Carson said. “I think they were relentless most of the game with their defensive pressure. That kind of takes its toll after a while.
“There were about five or six offensive possessions early on that we’d like to have back,” Carson said. “We missed a few front ends of some one and ones. I think if we convert on those possessions, then we’re maybe single digits the rest of the way.”
The Panthers led by as many as 15 points in the second quarter.
The Mustangs scored five points in the final 11 seconds of the half to cut the Panthers’ lead to 29-19 at the half.
DeAndre Pettiford had a big third quarter, scoring 11 points for Miami Trace.
The Panthers built the lead up to 22 points on a three-point field goal from Darby Tyree.
The Mustangs found the range for eight points, including a pair of threes by McLaughlin, to cut the Panthers’ lead to 48-33 after three quarters.
Lynchburg-Clay’s Giordano hit a three-point shot to make it 48-36 with 6:48 to play in the game. That was as close as the Mustangs could get in the fourth quarter as the Panthers outscored L-C 16-10 to take the 64-43 victory.
“The big key for us now is, how we manage the game with the lead,” Pittser said. “We’re doing too many silly things at the end of games. When we have a 20-point lead, we should be milking a little more clock and being a little more thorough on offense. That’s my fault. That’s the next level for us.”
“We’re not going to hang our heads,” Carson said. “This is a really good basketball team we played tonight. I think they are a favorite to win their league. It’s going to be a good test for us moving forward. It allows us to see where we need to get better for our conference play.”
Lynchburg-Clay (5-3) will return to Southern Hills Athletic Conference play Friday at Fairfield. The Lions are undfeated in SHAC. The Mustangs are 3-1 in the conference.
Miami Trace improves to 8-2 overall. The Panthers (4-0 in the SCOL), return to league play Friday at McClain with the freshman game at 4:45 p.m.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MT 10 19 19 16 — 64
LC 8 11 14 10 — 43
MIAMI TRACE — DeAndre Pettiford 8 (2)-2-24; Tyrae Pettiford 6-1-13; Blake Pittser 2 (1)-3-10; Darby Tyree 2 (1)-0-7; Cameron Carter 1-2-4; Seth Leach 1-0-2; Jacob Batson 1-0-2; Mitchell Creamer 1-0-2; Keondrick Bryant 0-0-0; Heath Cockerill 0-0-0; Tiante Connell 0-0-0; Brett Lewis 0-0-0. TOTALS — 22 (4)-8-64. Free throw shooting: 8 of 18 for 44 percent. Three-point field goals: D. Pettiford, 2; Pittser, Tyree. Combined field goal shooting: 26 of 70 for 37 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 4 of 21 for 19 percent. Rebounds: 38 (17 offensive). Assists: 7. Steals: 20. Blocks: 0. Turnovers: 9. Personal fouls: 16. Bench points: 14. Second chance points; 24. Points off turnovers: 19.
LYNCHBURG-CLAY — Joe Giordano 5 (3)-1-20; Eric McLaughlin 2 (3)-5-18; Zach Miller 0 (1)-0-3; A.J. Stroop 1-0-2; Michael Heindel 0-0-0; Noble Walker 0-0-0; Brian Lampkin 0-0-0; Isaiah Jones 0-0-0; Damin Pierson 0-0-0; Blake Croy 0-0-0; Austin Hilt 0-0-0; Trevor Lindsey 0-0-0; Quintin Smith 0-0-0. TOTALS — 8 (7)-6-43. Free throw shooting: 6 of 11 for 54 percent. Three-point field goals: Giordano, 3; McLaughlin, 3; Miller. Combined field goal shooting: 15 of 48 for 31 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 7 of 28 for 25 percent. Rebounds: 44 (10 offensive). Assists: 6. Steals: 5. Blocks: 2. Turnovers: 25. Personal fouls: 12. Bench points: 5. Second chance points: 2. Points off turnovers: 0.
Mustangs win j-v game with Panthers
In the j-v game Tuesday, Lynchburg-Clay defeated Miami Trace, 44-35.
Walker had 18 for the Mustangs to lead all scorers. Connor scored 11 for L-C.
For Miami Trace, Austin Mathews led with 11 points. He hit one three-point field goal.
Austin Brown scored eight for the Panthers, Brett Lewis and Wyatt Cory both scored five points, Heath Cockerill had four points (one three-point basket) and Tyler Eggleton had two points.
Miami Trace wins freshman game against Lynchburg-Clay
In the freshman game Tuesday, Miami Trace defeated Lynchburg-Clay, 44-38.
Trevor Barker was the game’s leading scorer for Miami Trace with 15 points. He hit two three-point field goals.
Kyler Conn scored nine for the Panthers, including connecting for two three-point buckets.
Rounding out the scoring for the Panthers: Jacob Hoppes and Cody Brightman both had five points; Caleb Perry scored four and a trio of players, Kody Burns, Javin Robinette and Cole Enochs, each had two points.
Ian Gragg led the Mustangs with five points. Gavin Stroop had four points.
