CHILLICOTHE — The Miami Trace Panthers visited the Larry Jordan gymnasium on the campus of Southeastern High School Friday to take on another team of Panthers.
Miami Trace jumped out to a 23-7 lead at the end of the first quarter and went on to post a 57-29 victory.2
It was a match-up of two senior-laden teams with Miami Trace having nine seniors and Southeastern having seven.
However, it turned out that Miami Trace had the more experienced team.
Senior Tyrae Pettiford was the game’s leading scorer for Miami Trace with 12 points. He had two dunks, back-to-back, early in the second quarter.
Seniors Blake Pittser and DeAndre Pettiford each scored 11 points for Miami Trace.
Zach Bodary led Southeastern with six points. Rex Hartman scored five and Ethan Smith and Aaron Benson each added four points
With Southeastern leading, 5-4, Miami Trace went on a 16-0 run to take a 20-4 lead.
Southeastern broke the streak with a basket late in the period and Darby Tyree hit a three-point shot at the buzzer to make it 23-7 after one.
Miami Trace’s pressure defense helped create nine Southeastern turnovers, many of those, most in fact, leading to transition baskets for the MT Panthers.
Miami Trace was unofficially 10 of 16 from the floor in the first quarter fo30r 64 percent. Southeastern made 2 of 6 shots in the first quarter for 33 percent.
Miami Trace began the second quarter with a 7-0 run to balloon the lead to 30-7. All of those points came from Tyrae Pettiford, beginning with a three-point shot, then back-to-back dunk shots. The first was a one-handed slam, putting down a rebound and the second was a breakaway two-handed jam. Folks marveled at Pettiford’s leaping ability as his head was up above the rim on at least one of those dunks.
At the end of the first half, Miami Trace held a 35-12 advantage.
Miami Trace shot 51 percent from the field in the first half to 26 percent for Southeastern.
Miami Trace made 5 of 13 shots in the third quarter to 3 of 10 for Southeastern to take a 48-20 lead into the final quarter.
The teams were even in the fourth quarter, 9-9 for the final score of 57-29.
“One of our main focuses is to try and not worry so much about what other teams are going to try, but to take care of business on our end,” Miami Trace head coach Rob Pittser said. “We want to dictate on defense and play our game and our style.
“We were able to do that early in the game tonight,” Pittser said. “It allows us to play more kids; it allows us to get the tempo up faster. We think our depth could be something that will be beneficial to us.
“It didn’t really surprise me that we had trouble scoring in the third quarter,” Pittser said. “When you play that hard the first game of the year, you’re just not in shape to play that style for four quarters. We were happy we got to play 13 kids tonight. All-in-all, we’re very pleased with how we played tonight.”
“They are quick and they are athletic,” Southeastern head coach Andy Slaughter said of the opposing Panthers. “I felt we could have come out and competed a little bit more than what we did. We were prepared for the pressure, we just didn’t handle it very well.
“We have 11 kids on our varsity roster,” Slaughter said. “For seven of them, tonight was their first varsity action in their careers. Five of our seniors had never played on the varsity before. Three of our starters were starting in a varsity game for the first time.
“We’ll just continue to work to get better as the season unfolds,” Slaughter said. “I doubt if were going to see many more teams like that, with the exception of Unioto.” The Shermans are picked as the favorites to win the Scioto Valley Conference this season.
The SE Panthers are at home tonight hosting the Washington Blue Lions. There will be no freshman game. The j-v game starts at 6 p.m.
Miami Trace is back in action Tuesday at Clinton-Massie at 4:45 p.m. The Panthers are at Wilmington next Friday and at Dublin Jerome next Saturday before their 2016-17 home opener against Hillsboro on Tuesday, Dec. 13.
Southeastern opens SVC play next Friday night at Westfall.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MT 23 12 13 9 — 57
SE 7 5 8 9 — 29
MIAMI TRACE — DeAndre Pettiford 5-1-11; Cameron Carter 1 (1)-0-5; Skyler McDonald 0-0-0; Tyrae Pettiford 3 (2)-0-12; Mitchell Creamer 1-0-2; Seth Leach 3-0-6; Blake Pittser 1 (3)-0-11; Keondrick Bryant 0-0-0; Jacob Batson 1-0-2; Heath Cockerill 0-0-0; Brett Lewis 0 (1)-0-3; Darby Tyree 1 (1)-0-5; Tiante Connell 0-0-0. TOTALS — 16 (8)-1-57. Free throw shooting: 1 of 6 for 17 percent. Three point field goals: Pittser, 3; T. Pettiford, 2; Carter, Lewis, Tryee. Field goal shooting: 24 of 51 for 47 percent. Turnovers: 11.
SOUTHEASTERN — Zach Bodary 3-0-6; Dante Pollock 0-0-0; Dawson Steele 0 (1)-0-3; Travis Arledge 0-0-0; Rex Hartman 1 (1)-0-5; Lane Ruby 1-1-3; Tanner Popp 0 (1)-0-3; Cody Welch 0-1-1; Ethan Smith 1-2-4; Aaron Benson 1-2-4; Michael Corey 0-0-0. TOTALS — 7 (3)-6-29. Free throw shooting: 6 of 12 for 50 percent. Three point field goals: Steele, Popp Hartman. Field goal shooting: 10 of 34 for 32 percent. Turnovers: 20.
MT wins j-v game
The junior-varsity game was a close affair at Southeastern High School Friday night.
The game was tied, 29-29 with 16.6 seconds to play.
Miami Trace went down court, but missed a go-ahead shot attempt.
Southeastern got the ball down underneath the bucket, but a jump ball was called, giving the ball back to Miami Trace.
With 4.6 seconds left, Drew Batson heaved a three-quarter court pass to Austin Mathews, who took the ball in for a lay-up.
That was the winning basket as Miami Trace came away with a 31-29 victory.
Austin Brown was the game’s leading scorer for Miami Trace with 12 points.
Mathews also achieved double figures with 10 points.
Brett Lewis had five points, including Miami Trace’s only three-point field goal of the game.
Heath Cockerill and Dakota Bolton each added two points for Miami Trace.
Nick Foody, Tyler Taylor and Wyatt Cory also played for Miami Trace.
Tyler Gray led Southeastern with nine points.
Clinton Minney and Aaron Gillum each scored seven points for SE, Noah Dresbach had four points and Trey Brown added two.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MT 5 8 8 10 — 31
SE 6 3 6 14 — 29
SE wins freshman game
In the freshman game Friday at Southeastern, the home team of Panthers beat the visiting Panthers, 35-31.
Cody Brightman led Miami Trace with 10 points, including two three-point baskets.
Caleb Perry scored eight points, Trevor Barker scored seven, including one three-point field goal and Kyler Conn hit two three-pointers for six points.
Jacob Hoppes, Javin Robinette and Kody Burns also played for Miami Trace.
Aaron Gillum was the game’s leading scorer for Southeastern with 15 points. He sank all three of his team’s three-point field goals.
Jaylee Hutchinson scored eight for Southeastern, Reese Wheeler had six points, Jared Sulpher had four points and Bryce McWhorter added two points.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MT 8 9 8 6 — 31
SE 9 2 16 8 — 35
