Miami Trace High School was the site of the McDonald’s Holiday Tournament championship game Saturday afternoon between the Miami Trace Panthers and the London Red Raiders.
Miami Trace advanced to the title game with a 64-62 win over Madison Plains on Thursday and London routed Greeneview, 58-41.
London won the championship, 59-43.
Red Raiders junior Trey Woodyard poured in 21 points, shared the team lead with six rebounds and had a team-high four assists. He was named tournament MVP.
Junior Jainaz Cameron scored 12 points and had six rebounds and three steals. He was also named to the all-tournament team.
Miami Trace junior Dylan Bernard led the Panthers with 12 points.
Senior Trevor Barker scored nine points and had five steals. He was named to the all-tournament team.
Junior Logan Rodgers scored eight points and led the game with 11 rebounds. He was also named to the all-tournament team.
In Saturday’s consolation game, Greeneview defeated Madison Plains, 64-48.
Madison Plains senior C.J. Crawford and Greeneview senior Gabe Caudill completed the all-tournament team.
“We actually thought toughness-wise and size-wise and all the stuff that goes with the components of competing that we did pretty well,” Miami Trace head coach Rob Pittser said. “Our kids played pretty tough; we made things difficult on them. We only gave them 29 points in the first half, we were just having a really hard time scoring the ball. We were super-pleased with our defense and our energy and the effort out of our kids.”
“Anytime you can come away with a championship, no matter what it is — holiday tournament — it’s good for your confidence heading into the second half of the season,” London head coach Zach Brown said. “We have a lot of guys playing well. We just have to continue doing that on both ends of the floor.
“Miami Trace’s size is tough to match up with,” Brown said. “They have two or three big guys they can throw at you and that just adds to the defensive focus you need to have. They pressured us really well today, which led us to some turnovers early on. Once we were able to see that and adjust, we were able to take care of business.”
The Panthers led once in the game, at 6-5 after a pair of free throws by junior Cameron Moore, with 4:05 to play in the first quarter.
London held a 16-9 lead at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Panthers drew to within four points, 20-16, with five minutes remaining in the half.
The Red Raiders held a 29-19 lead at halftime.
The Panthers had a good start to the second half, beginning with a 7-0 run with a three from Moore and buckets from Rodgers and Bernard. It was 29-26 with 6:40 to play in the third quarter.
London outscored Miami Trace 22-7 in the rest of the quarter to lead 51-33 with eight minutes to play.
The Panthers could get no closer than 14 points the rest of the way as London secured the championship, 59-43.
Miami Trace (6-5 overall) will host former SCOL opponent Clinton-Massie Saturday with the freshman game beginning at 4:45 p.m.
London (6-3 overall) will be at home to play Tecumseh Friday in the Central Buckeye Conference.
The McDonald’s Holiday Tournament is sponsored annually by Nick Epifano, owner and operator of McDonald’s of Fayette County and Jamestown.
“I’d like to congratulate our two kids who made the all-tournament team; Logan Rodgers and Trevor Barker,” Pittser said. “Logan Rodgers had a couple of really good games scoring the ball for us and Trevor Barker is a senior, a program kid. We rely on him to do a lot of stuff that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet.
“We certainly appreciate Nick Epifano and all he does for our community,” Pittser said.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MT 9 10 14 10 — 43
L 16 13 22 8 — 59
MIAMI TRACE — Dylan Bernard 5-2-12; Trevor Barker 1 (2)-1-9; Logan Rodgers 2-4-8; Cameron Moore 1 (1)-2-7; Kyler Conn 1-1-3; Hayden Hunter 1-0-2; Andrew Guthrie 1-0-2; Keegan Terry 0-0-0; Ethan Steele 0-0-0; Cyrus Keplinger 0-0-0; Bo Little 0-0-0; Isaiah Reisinger 0-0-0. TOTALS — 12 (3)-10-43. Free throw shooting: 10 of 20 for 50 percent. Three-point field goals: Barker, 2; Moore. Field goal shooting: 15 of 38 for 39 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 3 of 16 for 18 percent. Rebounds: 21 (3 offensive). Assists: 10. Steals: 15. Blocks: 2. Turnovers: 22. Personal fouls: 21. Bench points: 4. Second chance points: 0. Points off turnovers: 6.
LONDON — Trey Woodyard 7 (2)-1-21; Jainaz Cameron 2 (1)-6-13; Isaiah Hatem 4-2-10; Isaiah Jones 2-0-4; Jayden Hawkins-White 1-1-3; Ethan Minner 1-0-2; Eli North 1-0-2; Jayvion Stevens 1-0-2; Thomas Duvall 1-0-2; Tallon Russell 0-0-0; Brady Carter 0-0-0; Richard Dodson 0-0-0. TOTALS — 20 (3)-10-59. Free throw shooting: 10 of 21 for 48 percent. Three-point field goals: Woodyard, 2; Cameron. Field goal shooting: 23 of 42 for 54 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 3 of 11 for 27 percent. Rebounds: 28 (6 offensive). Assists: 9. Steals: 10. Blocks: 2. Turnovers: 20. Personal fouls: 18. Bench points: 18. Second chance points: 8. Points off turnovers: 12.
