GREENFIELD – The McClain Lady Tigers hosted the Adena Lady Warriors on Thursday at McClain High School and gave the home crowd a belated holiday present in the form of a 59-27 win over the visitors from Ross County.
Kyla Burchett, Kelli Uhrig and Bryn Karnes each finished in double figures for the Lady Tigers and scored 17, 13 and 12 points respectively in the win.
Jaelyn Pitzer chipped in with seven points, Emma Stegbauer and Raegan White both had four and Liz Kegley finished with two to account for McClain’s 59-point total.
Hannah Stark was the lone player in double digits for the Lady Warriors as she finished with 10 points and second leading scorer Cheyanne Ater had four.
Jenna Martin, Jayden Smith and Cloie Reddon each had three points for Adena while Keegan Hall and Makaela Lovely scored two apiece to help the Lady Warriors to 27 points on the night.
“We struggled a little early and I thought we might. Credit Adena they came out and took advantage of, kind of, what we gave them early on,” said McClain Lady Tigers’ Head Coach Jarrod Haines. “I didn’t think our pressure was as good as I would have liked but, all in all we kept our composure which, you know, with a young team. I think that’s tough to do. We didn’t panic.”
The Lady Tigers jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first quarter when Karnes used a post move to score the opening basket and Uhrig recorded two from the stripe and a layup off of a Lady Warriors turnover.
Stark got the Lady Warriors on the board with back to back baskets to keep Adena in the game early.
Martin had the other basket for the Lady Warriors but it was to no avail as McClain’s Burchett hit two three pointers before and after her basket and Karnes hit a jumper at the Buzzer to give McClain a 14-6 lead at the end of the first.
The Lady Tigers stretched the lead in the second quarter to take a 10 point 27-17 lead into halftime.
Adena was able to cut the lead to six points at 27-21 early in the third quarter but the Lady Tigers were unfazed as they rattled off 11 consecutive points to take back control at 38-21.
McClain led 46-25 after the third quarter and held the Lady Warriors to two points in the final frame while putting up 13 of their own as sophomore White led the way with four points in the quarter.
The Lady Tigers will be back in action January 5, 2019 when they host the Fairfield Lady Lions in a cross-county rivalry matchup.
Score by quarters
MHS 14-13-19-13
AHS 6-11-8-2
McClain: Pitzer 2(1)-7; Uhrig 4(1)-2/2-13; Burchett 4(3)-0/2-17; Karnes 5-2/2-12; Kegley 2/2-2; Stegbauer 1-2/2-4; White 1-2/2-4
Totals: 17(5)-10/13-59 Fouls: 11
Adena: Hall 1-2; Reddon 1-1/3-3; Stark 5-10; Smith (1)-3; Martin 1-1/2-3; Lovely 1-2; Ater 2-4
Totals: 11(1)-2/5- 26 Fouls: 16
Ryan Applegate is the sports editor for The Times-Gazette. Reach Ryan Applegate at 937-402-2572, or on Twitter @RCApplegate89.
