The Miami Trace Lady Panthers hosted the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs for their home opener Tuesday night.
The game turned into quite a battle, featuring one player from each team who will be playing Division I college basketball in the future.
In the end, Miami Trace withstood the challenge and came away with a 50-42 victory, improving to 2-0 on the season.
For Miami Trace, senior Tanner Bryant, who recently signed to play for Florida Gulf Coast, poured in 25 points. She now has 992 career points. It was a double-double for Bryant as she grabbed 11 rebounds to lead Miami Trace.
For Lynchburg-Clay, junior Peyton Scott, who has verbally committed to Miami of Ohio, also poured in 25 points. Scott also had five rebounds, one steal and one assist.
Both team’s next highest scorers, senior Victoria Fliehman for Miami Trace and sophomore Zoe Fittro for Lynchburg-Clay, each scored 11 points.
Fliehman had six rebounds, two assists and three steals for the Lady Panthers.
That brought it down to the third and fourth-leading scorers, respectively.
For Miami Trace, junior Cassidy Lovett and sophomore Shay McDonald each added seven points.
While, for Lynchburg-Clay, sophomore Logan Binkley scored four points and senior Abby Blankenship scored two.
“She’s an unbelievable player,” Miami Trace head coach Ben Ackley said of Scott. “She’s very crafty with the ball. Cass and Shay are as good as it gets on the perimeter guarding the basketball and we couldn’t force her into anything. She’s been the toughest match-up for me, as a coach, other than Ashton Lovely at Greeneview and Ella Skeens at Southeastern.
“She can finish at the rim,” Ackley said. “She doesn’t miss foul shots. I thought that she did a very good job. She hit one three from the volleyball line (several feet behind the three-point line). She’ll be a great success at the next level and I’m just glad we only play her once a year.”
“Miami Trace is a great team,” Lynchburg-Clay head coach Whitney Lewis said. “We knew this was going to be a heck of a ball game.
“We played our zone, I think, to the best of our ability,” Lewis said. “We covered who we needed to cover. My biggest fear was rebounding. Our tallest kid is 5-10. They have the size (advantage) on us, so we had to box out and I thought we did a pretty good job of that. I can’t ask for more on the effort side on the defensive end.
“Peyton is a special player,” Lewis said. “She’s going to have to step for us this season and I think she did that tonight. You can see the intangibles; when she has the ball, we feel comfortable and we’re able to run through our things and that opens up a lot of stuff for everybody else.”
“There were times we showed a lack of composure,” Ackley said. “I didn’t think it lasted long. I thought our seniors did a good job of stepping up. Tanner absolutely carried us in the second half, offensively.
“In the first half we missed so many easy shots,” Ackley said. “We were in foul trouble for the second game in a row. It’s something we have to address.
“This game and North Adams, this is the reason we scheduled games like this,” Ackley said. “We want put in this position. It does us no good to come out here and play teams we’re going to dominate.
“I thought Olivia Fliehman and Gracee Stewart both gave us great minutes at the beginning of the fourth quarter,” Ackley said. “They are both freshmen and this is the second game of the year. With the foul trouble, we were forced to do some things we weren’t ready to do yet and those kids really stepped up and answered the bell.
“Victoria Fliehman and Olivia Wolffe played great floor games,” Ackley said. “They did what they had to do with some key rebounds and key stops.”
Miami Trace took an early 7-2 lead in the ball game.
The Lady Panthers also led 12-5 until Scott’s three cut it to 12-8 at the end of the opening quarter.
The Lady Mustangs tied the game on an old-fashioned three-point play from Scott, 14-14. A pair of free throws moments later gave L-C a 16-14 lead.
Miami Trace took a 20-19 lead into the halftime locker room.
The lead changed hands five times in the third quarter. With McDonald scoring the final bucket of the period, Miami Trace led 40-35 with eight minutes remaining.
Lynchburg-Clay began to miss a few shot attempts early in the fourth quarter and that opened the door somewhat for Miami Trace.
Miami Trace went on a 9-0 run to extend their lead to 49-35 with 1:34 remaining in the game.
Then it was Lynchburg-Clay’s turn and they went on a 7-0 run of their own, cutting the deficit in half with under one minute to play.
Miami Trace had built enough of a lead and time was not on the side of the Lady Mustangs on this night.
Miami Trace will be back in action at home Saturday at 5:30 p.m., opening Frontier Athletic Conference play against Chillicothe.
Lynchburg-Clay will open league play at Manchester Thursday. Tuesday was L-C’s season-opening game.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
L-C 8 11 16 7 — 42
MT 12 8 20 10 — 50
MIAMI TRACE — Olivia Wolffe 0-0-0; Cassidy Lovett 3-1-7; Becca Ratliff 0-0-0; Shay McDonald 2 (1)-0-7; Tori Evans 0-0-0; Olivia Fliehman 0-0-0; Victoria Fliehman 4 (1)-0-11; Tanner Bryant 4 (4)-5-25; Gracee Stewart 0-0-0; Morgan Miller 0-0-0. TOTALS — 13 (6)-6-50. Free throw shooting: 6 of 14 for 43 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 6 of 23 for 26 percent. Three-point field goals: Bryant, 4; V. Fliehman, McDonald. Combined field goal shooting: 19 of 52 for 37 percent. Turnovers: 6. Rebounds: 28 (11 offensive.)
LYNCHBURG-CLAY — Abby Blankenship 0-2-2; Zoe Fittro 2 (2)-1-11; Emily Pinkerton 0-0-0; Serena Smith 0-0-0; Peyton Scott 7 (2)-5-25; Logan Binkley 2-0-4. TOTALS — 11 (4)-8-42. Free throw shooting: 8 of 15 for 53 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 4 of 16 for 25 percent. Three-point field goals: Scott, 2; Fittro, 2. Combined field goal shooting: 15 of 38 for 40 percent. Turnovers: 14. Offensive rebounds: 7.
Miami Trace wins j-v game over Lynchburg-Clay
The Miami Trace Lady Panthers gave new junior-varsity coach Kayla Dettwiller her first win as they defeated Lynchburg-Clay Tuesday, 25-15.
Aubrey Wood was the game’s leading scorer for Miami Trace with 11 points.
Gracee Stewart also reached double figures with 10 points, including two three-point field goals.
Aubrey Schwartz and Aubrey McCoy both added two points.
Regan Barton, Grace Bapst, Magarah Bloom, Krissy Ison, Ella Coe, Addy Little and Piper Grooms also played for Miami Trace.
For Lynchburg-Clay, Logan Binkley led with four points.
Serena Smith and Gabby Rose both scored three points, Kaylee Lunsford and Katie McLaughlin each had two points and Serene Walker scored one for the visitors.
Sam Kirby and Sierra Benney also both played in the game for the Lady Mustangs.
