Southern Hills Athletic Conference opponents the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs and the West Union Lady Dragons traveled to Valley High School on Thursday to face off in the Division III girls sectional basketball tournament. The Lynchburg ladies controlled the game from the opening tip as they cruised to an easy 75-31 victory.
Lynchburg-Clay’s Peyton Scott and Logan Binkley led the way for the Lady Mustangs with 20 points apiece, Zoe Fittro also managed to put up double digits with 14 points on the night.
Every Lady Mustang that scored in the game came away with at least five points.
The Lady Dragons were led by Kayley Daniels who netted 16 points on the night and sunk four triples in an attempt to keep her team in the game.
Lynchburg-Clay head coach Whitney Lewis talked about the victory afterward.
“Unfortunately West Union has suffered crucial losses due to injury and they are kind of down and out. I thought we came out and executed well tonight and our shots were falling so that is a plus. We got big nights from Logan, Peyton and Zoe. We had a lot of players step up tonight. We got some bench play out of our younger kids, they stepped up and hit some shots and stepped up on the defensive side of the ball,” said Lewis.
The Lady Mustangs were a little slow out of the gates as they allowed West Union to take a 5-4 lead with just under six minutes to play in the first quarter. However, from that point on Lynchburg went on a 20-0 run to close the quarter and put the game away early.
In the second quarter Lynchburg-Clay continued to roll as they quickly extended their lead and held a 25 point lead with 4:12 to play in the half following a pair of free throws by Binkley. West Union continued to struggle with the Lady Mustang defense as they scored eight points in the quarter and trailed 45-13 at the half.
Binkley converted two early field goals to push the lead past 35 points and initiate a running clock for the remainder on the game.
Even without their starters in the game in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter the Lady Mustangs continued to add to their lead as Sam Kirby and Sierra Benney were able to contribute to the victory. Kirby had two baskets in the fourth quarter and finished with six points while Benney had a triple in the final quarter and finished with five points on the night.
The Lady Mustangs advance to take on another familiar foe as fellow SHAC member the Easter Lady Warriors advanced earlier in the night. The two teams will meet Saturday, February 17, at Valley High School with a scheduled tip of 6:15 p.m.
When asked about preparing for an Eastern team that has played well all year Lewis said, “Eastern is a great team, they kind of outsize us a little bit. We have got to be able to play as hard as we can for 32 minutes. We have come up short a few times. Hopefully we can find the right formula and put it to the test Saturday.”
(Box Score)
LCHS: 24-21-17-13
WUHS: 5-8-6-12
Lynchburg-Clay: Blankenship 2-1/1-5; Fittro 4-6/6-14; Pinkerton 1(1)-0/2-5; Benney 1(1)-5; Scott 7(1)-3/3-20; Kirby 3-6; Binkley 9-2/2-20
Totals: 27(3)-12/14-75
West Union: Kirker (1)-3; Rowe (2)-6; Mills 2-0/2-4; H. Daniels (2)-6; K. Daniels 2(4)-16
Totals: 2(9)-31
Reach Ryan Applegate at 937-402-2572, or on Twitter @RCApplegate89.
