LEES CREEK — The Miami Trace Lady Panthers were looking to halt a four-game losing streak when they visited East Clinton High School to take on the Astros Wednesday, Dec. 20.

East Clinton came into the game also having lost four in a row, so, something had to give.

It was a slow start for Miami Trace, but the Lady Panthers picked up the pace in the final three quarters to post a 43-28 win.

East Clinton senior Lauren Runyon was the game’s leading scorer with 18 points.

Senior Abbi Reynolds scored five, Megan Hadley scored three and Liz Schiff added two.

For the Lady Panthers, senior Jessee Stewart and freshman Gracie Lovett each scored 11 points. Each player hit one three-point field goal.

Stewart had three rebounds, three assists and one steal.

Lovett led Miami Trace with eight rebounds and four assists to go along with three steals.

Junior Ellie Robinette scored eight points, contributed five rebounds and led Miami Trace with four steals.

Freshman Lauren Guess scored seven points and added three rebounds and one steal.

Sophomore Zoey Grooms had four points, six rebounds and one steal.

Sophomore Cali Kirkpatrick had two points and four rebounds.

Sophomore Bella Shull had four rebounds for the Lady Panthers.

East Clinton took a 7-2 lead to begin the game. The Astros led 7-4 at the end of the first quarter.

Miami Trace went on a 10-1 run in the second quarter and held a 16-12 halftime lead.

The best offensive quarter for Miami Trace was the third, in which the Lady Panthers scored 15 points to seven for East Clinton.

Miami Trace built its lead up to as many as 12 points, which was the difference in the score after three quarters, 31-19, in favor of the visitors.

Miami Trace led by as many as 16 points in the fourth quarter before the game concluded, 43-28.

“It looked like we hadn’t been in school today,” Miami Trace head coach Kayla Dettwiller said. “The kids weren’t in school today on the first day of Christman break and that’s what it looked like coming out to play.”

Miami Trace was definitely not looking ahead to Saturday’s game against their rivals, the Lady Lions of Washington.

“We take it one game at a time,” Dettwiller said.

“At halftime we talked about some offensive adjustments we needed to make,” Dettwiller said. “One of our adjustments was Jessee, being our only senior, came to me during the first quarter and said, ‘let me guard 14 (Runyon)’.

“She wanted the task of taking on the Runyon girl who was on that Elite Eight team two years ago,” Dettwiller said. “She did a good job of keeping (Runyon) out of the paint, which is what we needed her to do.

“I thought that was a great move by a senior player who was stepping into her role tonight,” Dettwiller said.

East Clinton fell to 1-8 overall with the loss. The Astros host Batavia Saturday and Fairfield on Dec. 28.

Miami Trace (3-5 overall, 1-3 in the Frontier Athletic Conference) will host the Washington Lady Blue Lions Saturday at approximately 6 p.m.

There are five games Saturday at Miami Trace High School with the Washington Blue Lions.

The freshman boys game is set to start at 1:30 p.m. After that, the remaining games have only an approximate starting time.

The j-v girls play at 3 p.m., followed by the j-v boys at 4:30 p.m., then the varsity girls at 6 p.m. and the battle of the two undefeated teams in the FAC will take place at 7:30 p.m.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

MT 4 12 15 12 — 43

EC 7 5 7 9 — 28

MIAMI TRACE — Ellie Robinette 3-2-8; Gracie Lovett 3 (1)-2-11; Allison Reeves 0-0-0; Bella Shull 0-0-0; Jessee Stewart 2 (1)-4-11; Cali Kirkpatrick 1-0-2; Katy Bock 0-0-0; Lauren Guess 2-3-7; Zoey Grooms 2-0-4. TOTALS — 13 (2)-11-43. Free throw shooting: 11 of 16 for 69 percent. Three-point field goals: Lovett, Stewart. Field goal shooting: 15 of 48 for 31 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 2 of 14 for 14 percent. Rebounds: 33 (7 offensive). Turnovers: 17. Assists: 8. Steals: 10. Fouls: 16.

EAST CLINTON — Kaylee Terrell 0-0-0; Abbi Reynolds 2-1-5; Liz Schiff 1-0-2; Megan Hadley 1-1-3; Lauren Runyon 7-4-18; Sahara Tate 0-0-0; Cheyenne Reid 0-0-0; Chloe Scott 0-0-0. TOTALS — 11-6-28. Free throw shooting: 6 of 14 for 43 percent. Three-point field goals: none. Field goal shooting: 11 of 43 for 26 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 0 of 11. Turnovers: 25. Offensive rebounds: 15.

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Miami Trace wins j-v game with Astros

Miami Trace won the j-v game at East Clinton 23-6.

Miami Trace led 21-0 until Keira Null scored with 2:21 to play in the second quarter.

The game was played for just two quarters due to East Clinton not having enough players.

Kaylin Childers scored three for the Astros and Sahara Tate scored one.

Allison Reeves was the game’s leading scorer for Miami Trace with seven points.

Katy Bock scored six, Bella Shull and Paige Fitzgerald each scored four points and Olivia Dunn scored two.

Miami Trace’s j-v team is now 5-3 overall.