GALLIPOLIS — The Miami Trace Lady Panthers made the long trip to Gallia County for a Division II Sectional tournament game Monday, Feb. 12.

Miami Trace was the No. 17 seed and Gallia Academy was the No. 16 seed, so, the Blue Angels had the home court.

It was a good start for Miami Trace, but in the end Gallia Academy came away with a 46-39 victory.

Miami Trace ends the 2023-24 season with a record of 7-16.

Gallia Academy improves to 8-13 and now has just a couple of days to prepare to take on the No. 1 seed out of the 19 teams in the tournament, the Fairland Dragons.

Gallia Academy and Fairland are members of the Ohio Valley Conference.

Fairland defeated Gallia Academy twice this season, 82-16 and 85-21.

The number 13 shows up in the box score a few times in this game.

Miami Trace freshman Lauren Guess shared the game scoring lead with two freshman from Gallia Academy, Ryen Nunn and Loulea Walker. Each of the three players scored 13 points. (Gallia Academy also scored 13 points in three of the four quarters of the game.)

Sophomore Ryleigh Vincent scored 11 for Miami Trace, freshman Gracie Lovett had six points, sophomore Zoey Grooms had four points and junior Ellie Robinette hit one three for three points.

Grooms had Miami Trace’s other three-point basket.

Guess led the Panthers with six rebounds. She also had one assist.

Vincent had five rebounds and one assist; Lovett had five rebounds (four offensive) and led Miami Trace with four assists and five steals.

Grooms had two rebounds and one steal and Robinette had two rebounds and two steals.

Unfortunately, Miami Trace’s senior, Jessee Stewart, who was named First Team, All-FAC, missed the last three games of the season with an injury.

Miami Trace began the game with a 6-0 run and took a 9-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Lady Panthers built their lead back up to five points at 17-12 with 3:09 to play in the first half.

Gallia Academy went on an 8-2 run to close out the half holding a 20-19 lead.

Miami Trace trailed by just one point, 22-21, early in the third quarter.

The Blue Angels led by as many as eight points, which was the margin of difference at the end of the third quarter, 33-25.

In the fourth quarter Gallia Academy increased its lead to as many as 14 points (40-26 with 5:31 to play).

With their season in the balance, Miami Trace fought back and drew to within six points and 43-37 on an old-fashioned three-point play at Lovett. That occurred with 1:40 to play in the game.

Gallia Academy made 1 of 2 free throws with 23.9 remaining.

Guess scored with 16 seconds left, making it a five-point game, 44-39.

Gallia Academy made 2 of its final 4 free throws for the 46-39 final score.

“We had a nice start getting out, then we went into a lull,” Miami Trace head coach Kayla Dettwiller said. “We just couldn’t seem to find the hole.”

Miami Trace was 14 of 51 shooting for 27 percent to 19 of 42 for 45 percent for Gallia Academy.

“They had some kids who ran the floor well,” Dettwiller said. “They had a couple of nice post players and they looked for them on lobs and they finished inside and if they didn’t they went and got their rebounds. They were a little bigger and harder for us to move.

“Our kids fought back,” Dettwiller said. “The game was 14 points at one point and we fought back to get to within five. We needed a little bit more time on the clock.

“We had a couple of kids who were in foul trouble about the middle of the game, so, that changed some of the rotations we were looking at, too,” Dettwiller said. “Our kids played hard. At one point we had four freshmen on the floor. I think we were four freshmen and one sophomore. This is great experience for those younger kids because they’ve got a long career ahead of them.

“We’re going to take this and keep working off of this through the off-season, into the summer, and, we’ll be back next year,” Dettwiller said. “We knew coming into the season that we were going to be extremely young. We only had one senior and a couple of upper classmen. We knew there would be a lot of growing pains.

“It’s never where you want to end (losing the first game of the tournament),” Dettwiller said. “But, this isn’t where the end is for the majority of this group. We’re just going to keep getting better, we’re going to keep moving forward.

“Jessee injured her knee the night before senior night,” Dettwiller said. “She missed the last three games. She is our leading scorer at about 12.5 points per game. When you take a kid off the floor who is shooting 30 percent or more from the three-point line — most teams know if you let her get in rhythm she can hit five or six or seven, like she did at Chillicothe.”

That was a game on Nov. 29 when Stewart hit 6 of 7 three-point shots in a 60-55 win over Chillicothe.

“That allows other players to get open because teams are scrambling to make sure she’s covered,” Dettwiller said. “We saw in the last three games what happens when we don’t have that kid on the floor. That is something we can take forward, knowing, ‘hey, this is what it’s going to look like next year.’

“Jessee has been a scorer for us. She has put in a ton of hours working on her shot. There’s not a shot on the floor she isn’t comfortable taking and we were confident in her ability to shoot the ball,” Dettwiller said. “Jessee will be missed, and we hate that her senior year ended in this way.

“We’ve got to have kids step up in the off-season, build on their games, start working on weaknesses, taking on bigger roles,” Dettwiller said.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

MT 9 10 6 14 — 39

GA 7 13 13 13 — 46

MIAMI TRACE — Ellie Robinette 0 (1)-0-3; Gracie Lovett 2-2-6; Alison Reeves 0-0-0; Bella Shull 0-0-0; Cali Kirkpatrick 0-0-0; Karleigh Cooper 0-0-0; Rylee Ferguson 1-0-2; Lauren Guess 6-1-13; Ryleigh Vincent 3-5-11; Zoey Grooms 0 (1)-1-4. TOTALS — 12 (2)-9-39. Free throw shooting: 9 of 20 for 45 percent. Three-point field goals: Robinette, Grooms. Field goal shooting: 14 of 51 for 27 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 2 of 14 for 14 percent. Rebounds: 25 (15 offensive). Turnovers: 15. Assists: 6. Steals: 9. Fouls: 16.

GALLIA ACADEMY — Mary Howell 1-0-2; Ryen Nunn 4 (1)-2-13; Emma Hammons 2-1-5; Taylor Barnes 1-1-3; Mallory Petro 3 (1)-1-10; Loulea Walker 6-1-13. TOTALS — 17 (2)-6-46. Free throw shooting: 6 of 11 for 55 percent. Three-point field goals: Nunn, Petro. Field goal shooting: 19 of 42 for 45 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 2 of 5 for 40 percent. Turnovers: 17. Offensive rebounds: 10.