The Miami Trace Lady Panthers varsity basketball team hosted the Lady Cavaliers of Chillicothe High School for a Frontier Athletic Conference match-up Wednesday night.
Chillicothe led by as many as 13 points in the second half, only to see Miami Trace battle back and pull to within one point.
In the end, Chillicothe won the game, 39-31.
Chillicothe junior Jacey Harding was close to unstoppable, scoring 28 points. She had 14 points in the first half and duplicated that output in the second half.
Junior Avery Erslan chipped in with six points for Chillicothe.
Miami Trace sophomore Jessee Stewart hit all four of her team’s three-point field goals on her way to a team-high 15 points.
Senior Libby Aleshire scored seven points and junior Hillary McCoy had six points.
Chillicothe took an early 4-0 lead, with Stewart then hitting two threes to give Miami Trace a 6-4 lead.
The Cavs led 8-6 at the end of the first quarter.
McCoy tied the game, 8-8 with 5:21 to play in the second quarter. That turned out to be the last tie of the game.
Chillicothe built its lead up to eight points before the buzzer signaled the end of the first half with the visitors in front, 18-11.
Chillicothe held a 24-11 lead before Aleshire scored Miami Trace’s first points of the second half at the 4:12 mark.
Stewart hit a three with 1:12 to play in the third and McCoy drained a free throw to cut the margin to 28-20 after 24 minutes of play.
Miami Trace had its best run of the game early in the fourth, with Aleshire scoring two, Stewart scoring three and Hillery Jacobs scoring two, pulling Miami Trace to within one point, 28-27 with 5:30 to play in the game.
There followed a series of missed opportunities for Miami Trace.
Chillicothe missed field goal attempts on four straight trips down the floor, but the Lady Panthers could not capitalize, with two missed shots and two turnovers of their own.
With 3:08 to play, Chillicothe scored back-to-back baskets to increase its lead to 32-27.
Miami Trace made its penultimate free throw of the game with 2:29 to play, putting the score at 32-28.
Chillicothe scored the next three points to go up by seven.
Stewart scored and made a free throw to put the score at 35-31.
Harding scored the final four points of the game to set the resulting tally at 39-31.
“The girls fought back hard,” Miami Trace head coach Kayla Dettwiller said. “Coming back from 13 down they showed a lot of resiliency. We just fell short at the end.
“We had a stretch there in the middle where we just couldn’t get shots to fall,” Dettwiller said. “We were getting the shots we wanted, they just weren’t going in the basket. You’re going to have nights like that where it feels like the lid is just on the basket and someone forgot to take it off.”
Dettwiller gave credit to Harding for her performance.
“Jacey is quite an athlete,” Dettwiller said. “She moves well, she changes speed well. She’ll look like she’s slowing down and then she’ll go from first gear to sixth gear in the blink of an eye. Hats off to her. For two years, she’s been a lot of what they’ve centered around. Tonight I believe she hit four or five shots out of her first six or seven.
“She’s a force to stop in the league,” Dettwiller said. “When she’s on, she’s as tough as they come.”
Miami Trace (2-5 overall, 2-1 in the FAC) will play at McClain Saturday. There has been a change in the start time due to the ACT’s.
The j-v game will start at 2 p.m., followed by the varsity.
In the j-v game Wednesday, Chillicothe defeated Miami Trace in overtime, 33-29.
Nevaeh Lyons of Miami Trace was the game’s leading scorer with 17 points.
Addyson Butts scored six points, Hannah Binegar had four points and Ellie Robinette added two points.
Miranda McCloy led Chillicothe with 12 points.
In one other FAC game Wednesday, Hillsboro defeated Washington, 43-17.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MT 6 5 9 11 — 31
C 8 10 10 11 — 39
MIAMI TRACE — Kaelin Pfeifer 0-0-0; Hillary McCoy 2-2-6; Jessee Stewart 1 (4)-1-15; Libby Aleshire 3-1-7; Mallory Pavey 0-0-0; Sidney Payton 0-1-1; Lilly Workman 0-0-0; Mallory Lovett 0-0-0; Hillery Jacobs 1-0-2. TOTALS — 7 (4)-5-31. Free throw shooting: 5 of 16 for 31 percent. Three-point field goals: Stewart, 4. Field goal shooting: 11 of 46 for 24 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 4 of 11 for 36 percent. Rebounds: 35 (9 offensive). Assists: 6. Steals: 6. Blocked shots: 2. Turnovers: 26.
CHILLICOTHE — Jacey Harding 10 (1)-5-28; Rhiley Sayers 0-0-0; Emma Fromm 1-0-2; Avery Cox 0-1-1; Caroline Corcoran 0-0-0; Jami Wilson 0-0-0; Avery Erslan 1-4-6; Paige Huggins 0-0-0; Emma Barnes 1-0-2; Paige Downing 0-0-0. TOTALS — 13 (1)-10-39. Free throw shooting: 10 of 17 for 59 percent. Three-point field goal: Harding. Field goal shooting: 14 of 46 for 30 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 1 of 4 for 25 percent. Offensive rebounds: 14. Turnovers: 18.
