JAMESTOWN — The Miami Trace Lady Panthers played in shifts against Madison Plains in the opening round of the 2017 McDonald’s Holiday Tournament at Greeneview High School on a very cold Wednesday after Christmas.
Miami Trace had their way with a 71-13 victory over the Golden Eagles.
Miami Trace (9-1) will play for the tournament championship at 8 p.m. Friday back at the Gary Bradds gymnasium at GHS, taking on the winner of Wednesday’s Greeneview versus London game.
Madison Plains (0-9) will play in the consolation game at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
It may have been a school record, but it was certainly a season-high of 16 players saw the court for Miami Trace and 13 of them scored (which may or may not be another school record).
Be that as it may, the Lady Panthers’ depth was on display in waves Wednesday.
Another statistic that might be in the running for a school record was the amount of points scored off of turnovers, which was a high percentage of the offense for the Lady Panthers on this night.
“We had a lot of kids tonight either get their first varsity playing time or score for the first time in a varsity game,” Miami Trace head coach Ben Ackley said. “That’s always very gratifying as a coaching staff to see our younger kids who are putting the time in and really working hard get an opportunity to come out and show (what they can do).
“We were proud of all 16 kids tonight,” Ackley said. “Everyone played hard. The top kids in our rotation did a nice job and got us the lead and that gave us the opportunity to play everybody.”
The starting five of Tanner Bryant, Victoria Fliehman, Shay McDonald, Cassidy Lovett and Olivia Wolffe gave Miami Trace a 19-0 lead with 3:45 to play in the first period.
It was 19-2 after eight minutes of play.
The second quarter was very similar as Miami Trace began by continuing with the first round of subs, then brought the starters back in for a bit and then ended the half with the subs again.
The Lady Panthers led 34-7 at the half.
Miami Trace won the third quarter by the same 19-2 margin as the first quarter and as the game rolled into the fourth quarter, many players, some making their varsity debuts, were seeing extended minutes of playing time and gaining valuable experience while the starters maintained an active roll by cheering and encouraging their younger teammates from the bench.
Shay McDonald was the game’s leading scorer with 10 points. She also had a likely season-high with seven steals.
Victoria Fliehman and Tanner Bryant both scored nine points. Bryant led the Lady Panthers with five assists.
Tori Evans scored seven points, while Olivia Fliehman and Magarah Bloom both scored six points. Bloom led the Lady Panthers in rebounds with four.
Gracee Stewart had five points and five players — Olivia Wolffe, Cassidy Lovett, Reagan Barton, Aubrey Wood and Lena Steele — each scored two points for Miami Trace.
Serenity Huffman led Madison Plains with six points. Kerrigan Kelley scored five and Addison Tesi had two.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MT 19 15 19 18 — 71
MP 2 5 2 4 — 13
MIAMI TRACE — Olivia Wolffe 1-0-2; Cassidy Lovett 4-1-9; Becca Ratliff 1-0-2; Aubrey McCoy 0-0-0; Shay McDonald 5-0-10; Tori Evans 2 (1)-0-7; Olivia Fliehman 2-2-6; Victoria Fliehman 3 (1)-0-9; Tanner Bryant 4-1-9; Aubrey Schwartz 0-0-0; Magarah Bloom 3-0-6; Gracee Stewart 0 (1)-2-5; Morgan Miller 0-0-0; Reagan Barton 0-2-2; Aubrey Wood 1-0-2; Lena Steele 0-2-2. TOTALS — 26 (3)-10-71. Free throw shooting: 10 of 13 for 77 percent. Three-point field goals: Evans, V. Fliehman, Stewart. Combined field goal shooting: 29 of 61 for 48 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 3 of 13 for 23 percent. Rebounds: 24 (10 offensive). Turnovers: 11. Assists: 15. Steals: 33. Personal fouls: 17.
MADISON PLAINS — Kerrigan Kelley 2-1-5; Alyssa Preece 0-0-0; Kati Powell 0-0-0; Ellie Call 0-0-0; Sami Powell 0-0-0; Addison Tesi 1-0-2; Serenity Huffman 3-0-6; Courtney Cross 0-0-0. TOTALS — 6-1-13. Free throw shooting: 1 of 5 for 20 percent. Three-point field goals: none. Combined field goal shooting: 6 of 28 for 21 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 0 of 4. Turnovers: 41. Offensive rebounds: 8. Personal fouls: 11.
