DODSONVILLE —The Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs improved to 2-0 on the season Monday when they hosted the Fairfield Lady Lions in a cross-county and Southern Hills Athletic Conference girls high school basketball matchup and won 51-27.
Zoe Fittro was the leading scorer for Lynchburg with 14 points while Brianna Barnes led the Lady Lions with 10 points in the game.
The Lady Mustangs also had Peyton Scott and Logan Binkley in double figures for the game as they recorded 13 and 11 points respectively to propel L-C to the win.
Scott struggled to score at times against a physical Fairfield team that applied constant pressure and often assigned a two girls to apply a double team when Scott had the ball.
Despite the extra attention Scott was able to affect the game with her passing and defense as she finished with six assists, five steals and three blocks to lead the Lady Mustangs.
Lynchburg won the opening tip and controlled the game from there with a 9-2 run to start the first quarter and a 7-0 run, following a three pointer by Samara Cannon that made it 9-5, to end the first with a 16-5 lead.
Chelsea Hart led the Lady Mustangs in the second quarter as she tallied four points in the quarter and Lynchburg-Clay extended their lead to 15 points at half time with the scoreboard reading 26-11 in favor of the home team.
Fittro and Scott combined to score all nine of the Lynchburg points in the third quarter as they continued to build their lead and took a 35-17 lead into the fourth.
Fairfield saved their best quarter for last as they tallied 10 points in the final frame with Barnes scoring six of her 10 points in the quarter, but it was not enough as the Lady Mustangs scored 16 to match their first quarter total and put the game away.
Score by quarters
LCHS 16-10-9-16
FHS 5-6-6-10
Lynchburg-Clay: Fittro 2(3)-1/2-14; Hart 2-4; Smith 1(1)-2/2-7; Benney 2/2-2; Scott 6-1/2-13; Binkley 4-3/4-11
Totals: 15(4)-9/12-51
Fairfield: Cannon (1)-3; Arnold 1-2; Huff 3-6; Thackston 0/2-0; Bronner 1-2/4-4; Haines 1-2; Barnes 5-10
Totals: 11(1)-2/6-27
Saturday, Nov. 24
The Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs hosted the Miami Trace Lady Panthers in the season-opening basketball game for both teams Saturday night.
Lynchburg-Clay led for the majority of the game as they posted a 47-40 victory.
One key factor in this non-conference match-up was rebounding.
Lynchburg-Clay won the battle of the boards en route to the victory.
The Lady Mustangs had 15 offensive rebounds to just three from Miami Trace on the offensive glass. Miami Trace had 18 total rebounds.
Lynchburg-Clay had a potent one-two scoring punch of junior Peyton Scott, who led the game with 21 points, and sophomore Zoe Fittro, who added 16.
A trio of Lady Panthers, senior Becca Ratliff, junior Shay McDonald and sophomore Gracee Stewart, each scored nine points. Ratliff and Stewart each had three three-point field goals.
After L-C took a 9-5 lead, Ratliff hit back-to-back three-pointers to give Miami Trace what proved to be its only lead of the game, 11-9 at the 2:48 mark of the first quarter.
Lynchburg-Clay scored the next five points to go in front, 14-11.
Miami Trace senior Olivia Wolffe’s two free throws at the end of the quarter set the score at 14-13.
Miami Trace would go on to score nine points in the second, third and fourth quarters.
The Lady Mustangs twice led by as many as six points in the second quarter, until a pair of free throws from Scott gave the home team its biggest lead to that point, 28-20 with 33 seconds to play until the halftime break.
Wolffe scored the final points of the half to leave L-C with a 28-22 halftime lead.
Miami Trace made a move on the Lady Mustangs with a bucket from Delaney Eakins and the third trey of the game for Ratliff. Miami Trace trailed 28-27 with five minutes to play in the third quarter.
Later in the third, Scott was fouled on a three-point attempt and made the three free throws to put the Lady Mustangs in front, 35-29.
Lynchburg-Clay led 37-31 after three quarters of action.
Wolffe converted the old-fashioned three-point play just a minute into the fourth quarter, pulling Miami Trace to within three points (37-34).
Lynchburg-Clay held its biggest lead, 47-37, only for a few seconds before Stewart hit a three to set the final tally at 47-40.
“I told the kids in the locker room that that’s the best game I’ve ever seen them have, as far as rebounding,” Lynchburg-Clay head coach Whitney Lewis said. “We rebounded phenomenally tonight. That was the difference in the game. They got one shot and they were done.
“That allowed us to (get away with) some mental mistakes,” Lewis said. “We turned the ball over (unofficially 21 times) a lot more than we should have. But because they had one shot and done, we were able to pull this one out. I’m really, really happy with that effort.
“I can’t say enough about our rebounding and our defensive effort,” Lewis said. “That is a good win against a quality club.”
Miami Trace connected on 14 of 43 field goal attempts for 33 percent. Miami Trace made 6 of 18 three-point attempts for 33 percent.
Lynchburg-Clay was 18 of 42 for 43 percent overall from the field and 3 of 5 from behind the three-point line.
Miami Trace will host Fairfield Union Tuesday in the old gymnasium with the j-v game at 5:30 p.m.
Score by quarters
MT 13 9 9 9 — 40
L-C 14 14 9 10 — 47
MIAMI TRACE — Olivia Wolffe 2-3-7; Cassidy Lovett 0-0-0; Becca Ratliff 0 (3)-0-9; Shay McDonald 3-3-9; Tori Evans 0-0-0; Aubrey Schwartz 1-0-2; Gracee Stewart 0 (3)-0-9; Delaney Eakins 2-0-4.
TOTALS — 8 (6)-6-40.
LYNCHBURG-CLAY — Zoe Fittro 2 (3)-3-16; Chelsea Hart 1-0-2; Serena Smith 0-0-0; Sierra Benney 0-0-0; Peyton Scott 8-5-21; Sam Kirby 1-0-2; Logan Binkley 3-0-6.
TOTALS — 15 (3)-8-47.
Chris Hoppes is the Sports Editor for The Record-Herald and contributed to this story.
