Miquela Santoro may be just one of 11 players on Clinton-Massie’s roster, but, on Wednesday night at Miami Trace High School, she showed how special she is, scoring 64 percent of her team’s points and playing equally proficient defense as the Lady Falcons improved to 5-0 on the season with a 44-33 victory.
Santoro, who has signed to play for Division I Winthrop, poured in 28 points in a game that started as an offensive struggle for both teams.
Miami Trace held a 3-2 lead at the end of the first quarter.
At halftime, the game was tied, 16-16.
As Clinton-Massie scored 14 points in second, third and fourth quarters, it was a night the Lady Panthers will look to put behind them moving forward.
The next chance for the Lady Panthers is at home Saturday evening at 5:30 p.m. against Wilmington.
“Miami Trace is well-coached,” Clinton-Massie head coach Carlos Roberts said. “Ben (Ackley) does a great job.
“I think our emotions were getting the best of us in the beginning,” Roberts said. “The nerves and everything, mine included.
“Once they settled down, both teams, things (normalized) and they began playing,” Roberts said. “(Tanner) Bryant not scoring much hurt them. Santoro has a tendency to do that to people.” The Miami Trace sophomore was held to three points in the game.
“There’s one person that she (Santoro) cannot stop,” Roberts said with a smile. “And, that’s me, in practice. Other than that, she’s pretty good.”
“Tonight we were 10 of 48,” Miami Trace head coach Ben Ackley said. “We’ve really struggled to put the ball in the hole at times. We did not have one kid shoot the ball well tonight. No one did.
“We had 12 turnovers, which, against a defense like Clinton-Massie’s is phenomenal,” Ackley said. “We rebounded the ball well. We had 33 rebounds.
“I thought the key to the game was in the first half, we could not pull away from them,” Ackley said. “The game was being played to our tempo. We were getting exactly what we wanted, offensively. Shots didn’t fall. They missed some shots that they normally make, too.”
“We had a chance to make some headway in the first half, we just couldn’t get away from them,” Ackley said.
The first quarter was a struggle for both teams, offensively.
Miami Trace made 1 of 15 shots and Clinton-Massie made 1 of 12.
Both teams made 5 of 15 shots in the second quarter.
The third quarter was tough for the Lady Panthers as they made just one bucket to four for the Lady Falcons.
Clinton-Massie led 30-22 at the end of three quarters.
Miami Trace finished the game shooting 10 of 48 for 21 percent.
Clinton-Massie fared somewhat better, hitting 12 of 41 shots for 29 percent.
Both teams were proficient at the free throw line.
Clinton-Massie was nearly perfect, hitting 16 of 17 for 94 percent.
Miami Trace made 12 of 16 from the line for 75 percent.
After Santoro, fellow senior Madison Purkey scored eight points and sophomore Johanna Theetge added six points.
Miami Trace junior Sam Ritenour had a double-double, with 13 points and 12 rebounds.
Junior Hanna Reisinger had eight points and senior Kyla Johnston scored four.
Clinton-Massie (2-0 in the SCOL) is back in action Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at Hillsboro.
Elsewhere around the SCOL Wednesday, McClain defeated Wilmington, 56-47, Hillsboro beat East Clinton, 50-32 and Chillicothe defeated Washington, 51-34.
Falcons win j-v game over Miami Trace
In the j-v game Wednesday, Clinton-Massie defeated Miami Trace, 36-31.
Madilyn Newton was the game’s leading scorer for Clinton-Massie with 22 points.
Faith Cottrell scored nine, Sydney Leary and Ashlie Miller both had two points and Haley Conley scored one.
Rachael Campbell led Miami Trace (4-1, 2-1) with 13 points.
Becca Ratliff, Morgan Miller and Olivia Wolffe each scored five points and Tori Evans scored three points.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MT 3 13 6 11 — 33
C-M 2 14 14 14 — 44
MIAMI TRACE — Kyla Johnston 2-0-4; Cassidy Lovett 0-0-0; Becca Ratliff 0 (1)-0-3; Hanna Reisinger 2-4-8; Tanner Bryant 1-1-3; Alexis Schwartz 1-0-2; Sam Ritenour 3-7-13. TOTALS — 9 (1)-12-33. Free throw shooting: 12 of 16 75 percent. Three-point field goal: Ratliff. Combined field goal shooting: 10 of 48 for 21 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 1 of 9 for 11 percent. Turnovers: 12.
CLINTON-MASSIE — Miquela Santoro 8 (2)-6-28; Johanna Theetge 0-6-6; Faith Cottrell 0-0-0; Brooke Rose 0-0-0; Madison Purkey 0 (2)-2-8; Madilyn Newton 0-0-0; Savannah Meyers 0-2-2. TOTALS — 8 (4)-16-44. Free throw shooting: 16 of 17 for 94 percent. Three-point field goals: Santoro, 2; Purkey, 2. Combined field goal shooting: 12 of 41 for 29 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 4 of 15 for 27 percent. Turnovers: 11.
