GREENFIELD — The Miami Trace Panthers made the trip down SR 41 Friday for a Frontier Athletic Conference game against the McClain Tigers.
The Panthers made the most of a couple of nice scoring runs, one to start the game and another in the fourth quarter, to post a 40-26 victory.
The Panthers were led by senior Trevor Barker, the game’s leading scorer, with 15 points.
Junior Logan Rodgers scored eight and junior Ethan Steele came off the bench to score six points.
The Tigers were led by sophomore Bryson Badgley with 10 points.
Junior Lyle White scored 11 and sophomore Braden Wright scored six.
White and Badgley led the game in rebounds, each with eight. White had a game-high five offensive rebounds.
Rodgers led the Panthers with seven rebounds and Barker had six. Barker also had a game-high five steals.
It took a couple of minutes before McClain scored the first basket of the game.
The Panthers led 8-2 at the end of the first quarter.
In all, it was a 14-0 run for Miami Trace, carrying over into the early stages of the second quarter, giving the Panthers a 14-2 lead.
The Tigers found the range on a couple of shots and pulled to within six points before the Panthers took an 18-10 lead into the locker room.
Miami Trace went on a 6-0 run to start the second half.
That was answered by a 6-0 run from the Tigers to set the score at 26-16.
At the end of three quarters of play, Miami Trace held a 28-22 lead.
McClain was able to pull to within four points, 28-24, with 5:40 remaining in the game.
The Panthers had back-to-back old-fashioned three-point plays, first from Barker and then from Steele.
Another basket from Steele and two free throws by Barker gave the Panthers a 10-0 run and a 38-24 lead with 2:47 to play.
After a basket by the Tigers, Steele hit one free throw and Keegan Terry hit one to put the final tally at 40-26.
“We told the kids before we came here that this is probably the second-most difficult gym in our league to play in, no matter what their record is,” Miami Trace head coach Rob Pittser said. “We told them we needed to play defense to have a chance.
“If you come down here and you let McClain beat you to loose balls and turnovers and toughness plays early in the game, you’re in a lot of trouble,” Pittser said. “We wanted to come out and do something we’re not really known for doing, a zone press. The traps were really good to us, as far as forcing the tempo and taking them out of sorts.
“It was super frustrating to see just how many empty possessions we had during one stretch,” Pittser said. “We felt as a staff we could have had a much bigger lead than we did.
“These kids have struggled to get league wins, so, to get one on the road tonight is a big deal,” Pittser said. “Ethan Steele and Keegan Terry gave us huge minutes off the bench.”
“What we ask our kids to do is simple, (but) not easy,” McClain head coach Joe B. Stewart said. “To ask our group to out-rebound a team with their size and their strength on the boards, that’s a tall task.”
Miami Trace out-rebounded McClain, 31-20.
“The most disappointing thing to me is, we turned the ball over 21 times,” Stewart said. “If you turn it over 21 times, you’re probably not going to win the basketball game. That was the case tonight.
“Give Miami Trace credit tonight,” Stewart said. “They were ready to go, they had a good plan. We were ready to go and had a good plan. They just really executed their game better than we were able to execute ours.”
Miami Trace (4-3 overall, 1-2 in the FAC) will be back in action Tuesday at Hillsboro with the freshman game at 4:45 p.m.
McClain will be at Chillicothe Tuesday evening.
The Cavaliers defeated the Washington Blue Lions Friday night, 85-22.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MT 8 10 10 12 — 40
Mc 2 8 12 4 — 26
MIAMI TRACE — Trevor Barker 6-3-15; Logan Rodgers 4-0-8; Ethan Steele 2-2-6; Andrew Guthrie 2-0-4; Kyler Conn 2-0-4; Cameron Moore 1-0-2; Keegan Terry 0-1-1; Dylan Bernard 0-0-0. TOTALS — 17-6-40. Free throw shooting: 6 of 11 for 54 percent. Three-point field goals: none. Field goal shooting: 17 of 45 for 37 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 0 of 12. Rebounds: 31 (13 offensive). Assists: 7. Steals: 13. Blocks: 5. Turnovers: 18. Personal fouls: 9. Bench points: 11. Second chance points: 18. Points off turnovers: 12.
McCLAIN — Bryson Badgley 2 (1)-3-10; Lyle White 3-1-7; Braden Wright 3-0-6; Matt Bliss 1-0-2; Camden Closson 0-1-1; Dakota Pollock 0-0-0; Preston Saunders 0-0-0; Noah Reeves 0-0-0. TOTALS — 9 (1)-5-26. Free throw shooting: 5 of 11 for 45 percent. Three-point field goal: Badgley. Field goal shooting: 10 of 42 for 23 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 1 of 11 for 9 percent. Rebounds: 20 (6 offensive). Assists: 1. Steals: 8. Blocks: 0. Turnovers: 20. Personal fouls: 13. Bench points: 0. Second chance points: 2. Points off turnovers: 13.
