The 2021-22 girls high school basketball season tipped off Friday night with Miami Trace hosting the Falcons of Fairfield Union.
Fairfield Union got the win, 46-32.
Sophomore Jessee Stewart led Miami Trace with 10 points. She hit two three-point field goals.
Junior Hillery ‘Bean’ Jacobs scored seven points and led Miami Trace with nine rebounds.
Junior Kaelin Pfeifer scored seven points, with one three-point basket.
Senior Hannah Rauch led the game for Fairfield Union with 13 points. She had two of her team’s three-point field goals.
Junior Isabella Neal scored 10 points and senior Claire Cooperider had seven points, with one three.
The game was tied, 10-10 before Fairfield Union scored the last six points of the first quarter to take a 16-10 lead.
Miami Trace pulled to within one point, 18-17, with a three-point basket by Stewart.
Stewart hit another three for the final basket of the first half, setting the score at 22-20 in favor of Fairfield Union as the teams headed into the halftime break.
Miami Trace tied the game, 24-24 on a pair of free throws from Jacobs with 5:03 to play in the third quarter.
Fairfield Union scored 10 unanswered points to finish the third quarter in front, 34-24.
In total it was a 12-0 run for the Falcons before Pfeifer interrupted with a lay-up with 6:40 to play in the game.
Miami Trace pulled to within seven points on a free throw by senior Libby Aleshire, 36-29 with just over four minutes remaining.
Fairfield Union outscored Miami Trace 10-3 down the stretch to post the 46-32 victory.
Kayla Dettwiller, in her first game as the Miami Trace head coach, gave a few thoughts on the season opener.
“The girls came out and played hard,” Dettwiller said. “We’ve been battling a lot of injuries in the pre-season. We’re learning to play with each other. It’s a big learning curve.
“This group just keeps building,” Dettwiller said. “Every day they come in and work hard. They push each other. We’re only going to get better as the season goes on.
“Early on I think we had a lot of nerves coming into this first game,” Dettwiller said. “For several of these girls it was their first varsity start or first varsity experience. We graduated three starters from last year’s team. (We had) a lot of kids stepping up into different roles.”
Fairfield Union used their height advantage to out-rebound Miami Trace on the offensive boards, 16-4.
Miami Trace will be back in action Wednesday at Eastern Brown High School.
The j-v game starts at 5:30 p.m.
The next home game will be the day after Thanksgiving as Miami Trace hosts Peebles.
In Friday’s j-v game, Fairfield Union beat Miami Trace, 12-8. The game was two quarters in duration.
Aaron Hammond, the Miami Trace Athletic Director, said that the Miami Trace girls j-v team will play only two quarters against non-league teams this year. In Frontier Athletic Conference games, they will play four quarters.
In the j-v game for Miami Trace, Addyson Butts led with four points. Ellie Robinette scored three points and Nevaeh Lyons scored one.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MT 10 10 4 8 — 32
FU 16 6 12 12 — 46
MIAMI TRACE — Kaelin Pfeifer 2 (1)-0-7; Hillary McCoy 1-1-3; Jessee Stewart 2 (2)-0-10; Libby Aleshire 1-1-3; Mallory Pavey 0-0-0; Lilly Workman 0-0-0; Mallory Lovett 0-2-2; Hillery Jacobs 2-3-7. TOTALS — 8 (3)-7-32. Three-point field goals: Stewart, 2; Pfeifer. Free throw shooting: 7 of 14 for 50 percent. Field goal shooting: 11 of 50 for 22 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 3 of 18 for 17 percent. Rebounds: 29 (4 offensive). Turnovers: 20. Assists: 6. Steals: 7.
FAIRFIELD UNION — Nicole Terry 3-0-6; Elly Lewis 2-0-4; Christian Thompson 2-0-4; Hannah Rauch 1 (2)-5-13; Isabella Neal 5-0-10; Claire Cooperider 1 (1)-2-7; Addison Sharp 1-0-2. TOTALS — 15 (3)-7-46. Three-point field goals: Rauch, 2; Cooperider. Free throw shooting: 7 of 16 for 44 percent. Field goal shooting: 18 of 54 for 33 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 3 of 15 for 20 percent. Offensive rebounds: 16. Turnovers: 16.
