As 2015 comes to a close, one of the last orders of business on the local sports scene is the McDonald’s Holiday Tournament.
The tournament got underway Tuesday night with semifinals at Miami Trace High School.
In the opening game, Greeneview High School beat Madison Plains, 71-60.
In the nightcap, it was Miami Trace, featuring a swarming pressure defense, defeating London, 60-40.
Wednesday, London will play Madison Plains in the consolation game at 6:30 p.m. and the Panthers will take on the Rams of Greeneview in the championship game at 8 p.m.
Tuesday, Miami Trace was led by DeAndre Pettiford, the game’s leading scorer, with 17 points.
Darby Tyree had 12 points and Tyrae Pettiford scored nine.
The Pettiford twins shared game honors, each with seven rebounds.
Kamhar Jones led the Red Raiders with 10 points.
Grant Brooks had eight and Darius Davis scored eight.
In the first quarter, the game was close with four early lead changes.
The Panthers held a 12-10 lead at the end of the first eight minutes of action.
Miami Trace built a lead of up to eight points in the second quarter.
With a bucket just near the end of the half by DeAndre Pettiford, the Panthers took a 30-20 lead into the locker room.
The pressure defense that bothered London in the second quarter, was applied with equal fervor on the part of Miami Trace in the third quarter.
Outscoring London 19-6 in the third, Miami Trace took a 49-26 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Panthers led by as many as 30 points on a basket by Mitchell Creamer.
London went on a 10-0 run in the final minutes as the Panthers notched a convincing 60-40 victory.
“We were a little more radical on offense than we’d like,” Miami Trace head coach Rob Pittser said. “In the second half, we got a lot better attacking the basket and sticking to the plan of where we wanted the ball to go.
“It was about defense tonight,” Pittser said. “We thought there was a chance that we’d be able to pressure the ball a little bit and we were able to do that.
“Once we were in a situation where the traps were kind of good to us — by that I mean we were getting a fair amount of steals and turnovers and not getting hurt with five on four or three on two situations — we decided to stay with it. The pressure was definitely good to us tonight.”
Pittser gave a couple of thoughts on the next match-up, the championship game against Greeneview.
“They have the best-skilled big kid we’ve seen so far,” Pittser said. “(Ethan) Bradds came back out after a year off last year. He’s very skilled. He’s big and solid. They have a lot of kids that can catch and shoot, so, we have to figure out a way to guard him on the block and still be able to contest open threes so we don’t give them catch and shoot opportunities. That’ll be a big key to that game.”
Miami Trace will enter that game with a record of 5-4 overall.
In Tuesday’s opening game, Greeneview placed four players in double figures in a 71-60 win over Madison Plains.
The Rams (now 3-5) were led by Nick Fife with 22 points. Fife connected on six three-point field goals.
Ethan Bradds and Kellyn Brooks both backed that up nicely with 19 points each and Jack Randall added 10.
For the Golden Eagles (now 2-7), Spencer Ruzick led with 17 points. Zach Bayless had 16 points, and Jacob Vallery and Hunter McConkey each had eight points.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MT 12 18 19 11 — 60
L 10 10 6 14 — 40
MIAMI TRACE — DeAndre Pettiford 7 (1)-0-17; Darby Tyree 5-2-12; Tyrae Pettiford 4-1-9; Skyler McDonald 1 (2)-0-8; Mitchell Creamer 3-0-6; Jacob Batson 1 (1)-0-5; Keondrick Bryant 1-0-2; Cameron Carter 0-1-1; Seth Leach 0-0-0; Ian Herbert 0-0-0. TOTALS — 22 (4)-4-60. Free throw shooting: 4 of 11 for 36 percent. Three-point field goals: McDonald, 2; D. Pettiford; Batson. Combined field goal shooting: 26 of 50 for 52 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 4 of 12 for 33 percent. Turnovers: 23. Rebounds: 31 (11 offensive). Assists: 15. Steals: 19. Blocks: 4.
LONDON — Kamhar Jones 2 (2)-0-10; Grant Brooks 1 (1)-3-8; Darius Davis 4-0-8; Chad Lett 1 (1)-0-4; Cameron Greenhill 0 (1)-0-3; K.J. Price 0-2-2; Tristian Maynard 1-0-2; Jalen Russell 1-0-2; Kade Anderson 0-0-0; Zack Webster 0-0-0; Jake Andrich 0-0-0; Kody Kuhnheim 0-0-0. TOTALS — 10 (5)-5-40. Free throw shooting: 5 of 6 for 83 percent. Three-point field goals: Jones, 2; Brooks, Lett, Greenhill. Combined field goal shooting: 15 of 44 for 34 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 5 of 13 for 38 percent. Turnovers: 25. Rebounds: 17 (3 offensive). Assists: 8. Steals: 10. Blocks: 0.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
G 14 17 25 15 — 71
MP 12 9 15 24 — 60
GREENEVIEW — Austin Petry 0-0-0; Dylan Lehotay 0-1-1; Kellyn Brooks 4 (3)-2-19; Nick Clevenger 0-0-0; Nick Fife 2 (6)-0-22; Jack Randall 5-0-10; Ethan Bradds 7-5-19. TOTALS — 18 (9)-8-71. Free throw shooting: 8 of 11 for 73 percent. Three-point field goals: Fife, 6; Brooks, 3.
MADISON PLAINS — Andy Shunk 0-0-0; Hunter McConkey 4-0-8; Jonathan Dill 0-0-0; Korben Robertson 0 (2)-0-6; Jacob Vallery 1-6-8; John Vallery 0-0-0; Cam Near 2-1-5; Ian Richards 0-0-0; Spencer Ruzicka 3 (3)-2-17; Zach Bayless 6-4-16. TOTALS — 16 (5)-13-60. Free throw shooting: 13 of 17 for 76 percent. Three-point field goals: Ruzikca, 3; Robertson, 2.
