After dropping the first three games of the season, the Miami Trace Lady Panthers find themselves in first place in the early-going of the Frontier Athletic Conference race at 2-0 following a 42-39 home win over Jackson Wednesday, Dec. 1.

After Miami Trace led by as many as 15 points in the first half, Jackson fought back and kept the outcome in doubt right to the end.

Miami Trace junior Hillery ‘Bean’ Jacobs was the game’s leading scorer with 17 points. She also led in rebounds with seven and assists with four. Jacobs had three three-point field goals.

Sophomore Jessee Stewart hit two threes and scored a total of eight points.

Senior Libby Aleshire had six points and six rebounds, junior Hillary McCoy had five points (with one three-point basket) and four rebounds.

Junior Kaelin Pfeifer scored four points and junior Mallory Lovett scored two.

Sophomore T.J. Carpenter led Jackson with 16 points.

Sophomore Kenzie Davis scored 11 and sophomore Sydney Hughes had two threes for a total of six points.

“We started off with a pretty hot hand,” Miami Trace head coach Kayla Dettwiller said. Miami Trace made 5 of 8 shots from three-point range.

“We came out shooting well,” Dettwiller said. “Jackson struggled a little bit to score. They were getting the stuff they were looking for, but they weren’t having success getting the ball to fall.”

Miami Trace led 17-6 at the end of the first quarter and 27-16 at the half.

“We were a little bit more cold coming out in the second half,” Dettwiller said. “They started hitting some shots. They were able to get some second chance opportunities. (We) had them for 16 offensive rebounds (to four for Miami Trace).

“We missed some assignments on box-outs,” Dettwiller said. “Those led to some second chance opportunity points for them.

“They cut our lead down to one point with about eight seconds left,” Dettwiller said.

Dettwiller explained that a Jackson player went to the foul line for a one-and-one situation. The player missed the front end and McCoy wound up with the ball and was fouled.

“She hit two free throws with 4.5 seconds left to make them have to shoot a three,” Dettwiller said. “They had to go the full length of the court. They didn’t get the shot off in time.

“Jackson is still one of the teams to beat in the league,” Dettwiller said. “They have a lot of weapons. They’ve got good size and they have youth on their side. They start four sophomores and a senior.

“T.J. Carpenter and Mattie Walburn do a nice job,” Dettwiller said. “They play the game well. I believe they both received District honors last year.

“The key would have been resiliency,” Dettwiller said. “When they started scoring, we tried to limit how many possessions they were going to have to slow their scoring down. They wanted to get up and go a little bit faster. (We) tried to make them grind through their offense and have to go get loose balls and rebounds, making sure we were not giving them second opportunity points; trying to find ways to win late in the game.”

Miami Trace (2-3 overall, 2-0 in the FAC) will be at home Saturday at 5:30 p.m. to take on Unioto.

There is a four-way tie for second place in the FAC with Chillicothe, Hillsboro, McClain and Jackson all 1-1. Washington is 0-2 in the FAC.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

MT 17 10 6 9 — 42

J 6 10 9 14 — 39

MIAMI TRACE — Kaelin Pfeifer 2-0-4; Hillary McCoy 0 (1)-2-5; Jessee Stewart 1 (2)-0-8; Libby Aleshire 3-0-6; Mallory Pavey 0-0-0; Sidney Payton 0-0-0; Lilly Workman 0-0-0; Mallory Lovett 1-0-2; Hillery Jacobs 3 (3)-2-17. TOTALS — 10 (6)-4-42. Free throw shooting: 4 of 6 for 67 percent. Three-point field goals: Jacobs, 3; Stewart, 2; McCoy. Field goal shooting: 16 of 47 for 34 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 6 of 22 for 27 percent. Turnovers: 13. Steals: 4. Rebounds: 21 (4 offensive).

JACKSON — Rylie Kilgour 0-0-0; Katelyn Webb 1-0-2; Olivia Kennedy 0-2-2; T.J. Carpenter 6-4-16; Mattie Walburn 1-0-2; Sydney Hughes 0 (2)-0-6; Kenzie Davis 3-5-11. TOTALS — 11 (2)-11-39. Free throw shooting: 11 of 21 for 52 percent. Three-point field goals: Hughes, 2. Field goal shooting: 13 of 51 for 25 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 2 of 11 for 18 percent. Offensive rebounds: 16. Turnovers: 10.