The Miami Trace Lady Panthers welcomed the Lady Lions of Washington High School for a Frontier Athletic Conference match-up of Fayette County teams Saturday.
Miami Trace won the game, 49-33.
Miami Trace senior Shaylee McDonald led the game with 22 points. She also led the Lady Panthers with seven rebounds.
Junior Delaney Eakins scored 13 points and had six rebounds.
Washington senior Shawna Conger led the Lady Lions with 13 points.
Freshman Natalie Woods was next with six points.
Conger hit the first two buckets of the game for Washington.
McDonald hit a three and then a two-point basket to give Miami Trace a 5-4 lead.
Magarah Bloom scored for the Lady Panthers and Washington’s Kendall Dye hit a three-point shot to tie the game, 7-7.
Jeleeya Tyree-Smith hit a three for Washington and Conger had a put-back basket to give the Lady Lions a 12-7 lead with 2:45 to play in the initial period.
Hillery Jacobs hit a three for Miami Trace, Eakins scored and converted a free throw and then Eakins scored right before the buzzer for an 8-0 run to give the Lady Panthers a 15-12 first quarter lead.
Miami Trace opened its lead a bit more in the second quarter, taking a 26-17 lead at the half.
Washington went on a 9-2 run to begin the third quarter. They pulled to within two points at 28-26 on a three by Woods.
As the battle continued, Miami Trace held a 32-27 lead after three quarters of action.
Conger hit a three for the first score of the fourth quarter. That two-point differential was as close as Washington would get the rest of the game.
Miami Trace pulled away with a 15-0 run, limiting Washington to six points for the 49-33 final tally.
“Any time you play Washington Court House, it’s a great environment,” Miami Trace head coach Ben Ackley said. “We’re very fortunate to play in a gym filled like this four days before Christmas.
“Both teams are very young,” Ackley said. “We thought whoever responded (to the atmosphere) better gave them a big edge in the game. We’re proud of our kids.
“(Shaylee McDonald) was co-player of the league last year for a reason,” Ackley said. “She’s a special talent, in my opinion one of the top five players who has ever stepped foot in the gym at Miami Trace on the women’s side.
“We always trust her,” Ackley said. “I thought she settled a little bit in the third quarter for some shots. That’s a sign of fatigue. Delaney Eakins didn’t practice all week. Shay’s been out. Libby Aleshire is in Las Vegas playing in a golf tournament. We were missing a starter tonight.
“When you talk about their rebounding advantage, as good as Court House is, and they do a great job of rebounding the ball, year-in and year-out, Libby would have helped that a little bit,” Ackley said. “It’ll be nice when we go in town (Feb. 8) to have Libby back.
“What a talent she is, what a career she is having,” Ackley said of Shawna Conger. “I thought their other kids played really well, too. They are never going away. Sam (Washington head coach Samantha Leach) does a great job with that group. They fought. Their young kids made some shots in the third quarter.”
“Everything that Shawna got this evening, she had to work for,” Leach said. “We knew they were going to put pressure on her and just be all over her.
“They typically run some type of junk defense against us, so we were expecting it,” Leach said. “We had plenty of opportunities, plenty of open looks. We just, especially in the first half, could not knock down any of the wide-open looks we were getting.
“I felt like we were settling for the three a little too much, especially in the second quarter,” Leach said. “We needed to attack more. Credit goes out to them. I felt Trace played with more grit. They were getting the 50-50 balls, especially in the fourth quarter.
“We weren’t doing the little things and getting stops,” Leach said. “That was most important, getting stops on defense and we weren’t doing it. Our girls need to take what we work on in practice and let it carry over to the game. For whatever reason, our shots weren’t falling.
“Our girls did a great job of starting in the second half,” Leach said. “I felt like we did respond, but then, after that, we just seemed to fall apart for a little while and we couldn’t find our groove again. We gave up way too many points in transition, too.”
Dye led the Lady Lions with seven rebounds. Tyree-Smith and Conger each had five rebounds and Halli Wall and Aaralyne Estep both had two rebounds.
The Lady Lions (5-3 overall, 2-3 FAC) have three games coming up in Arizona in the Cactus Jam Friday through Sunday.
Washington will host Unioto Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020 at noon.
Miami Trace (4-4 overall, 4-1 FAC) will play Madison Plains in the first round of the McDonald’s Holiday Tournament at Greeneview High School Friday at 6:30 p.m.
London will play Greeneview Friday at 8 p.m.
The consolation game is set for Monday at 6:30 p.m. with the championship game to follow at 8 p.m.
In other Frontier Athletic Conference games Saturday, McClain beat Hillsboro, 37-30 and Chillicothe defeated Jackson, 44-29.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MT 15 11 6 17 — 49
W 12 5 10 6 — 33
MIAMI TRACE — Sidney Payton 1-0-2; Mallory Pavey 0-0-0; Hillary McCoy 0-0-0; Aubrey McCoy 0-0-0; Shay McDonald 6 (1)-7-22; Magarah Bloom 2-1-5; Gracey Ferguson 1-0-2; Audrey Cragi 0-2-2; Addy Little 0-0-0; Mallory Lovett 0-0-0; Hillery Jacobs 0 (1)-0-3; Emma Pitstick 0-0-0; Delaney Eakins 5-3-13; Grace Bapst 0-0-0. TOTALS — 15 (2)-13-49. Free throw shooting: 13 of 17 for 76 percent. Three-point field goals; McDonald, Jacobs. Field goal shooting: 17 of 40 for 43 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 2 of 8 for 25 percent. Rebounds: 28 (5 offensive). Turnovers: 14. Assists: 11. Steals: 7.
WASHINGTON — Allie Mongold 0-0-0; Aaralyne Estep 1-0-2; Kaelin Pfeifer 1-0-2; Kendall Dye 1 (1)-0-5; Jeleeya Tyree-Smith 0 (1)-2-5; Abby Tackage 0-0-0; Megan Sever 0-0-0; Natalie Woods 1 (1)-1-6; Halli Wall 0-0-0; Shawna Conger 4 (1)-2-13. TOTALS — 8 (4)-5-33. Free throw shooting: 5 of 10 for 50 percent. Three-point field goals: Dye, Tyree-Smith, Woods, Conger. Field goal shooting: 12 of 57 for 21 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 4 of 13 for 31 percent. Rebounds: 24 (12 offensive). Turnovers: 7.
