The McClain Tigers traveled to Southeastern High School on Tuesday to take on the Miami Trace Panthers in a Sectional Semi-Final game, the Tigers fell to the Panthers by a score of 63-39.
McClain was led in scoring by Devin Carter who had 13 points on the night, Kobe Penwell also contributed double figures for McClain as he finished with 10 points, including back to back three pointers in the fourth quarter.
The Panthers were led by Cameron Carter who had 21 points and netted four triples to lead Miami Trace to the easy victory. Darby Tyree also managed to get into double figures on the night with 15 points and he had the highlight of the night when he got a pass ahead on the fast break and hammered home a vicious dunk to the delight of the Miami Trace faithful.
The Panthers took control early as they opened with a 12-0 over the first three minutes of the game. McClain fought back over the final five minutes and outscored the Panthers 7-4 to trail by nine points after one quarter of play.
A field goal by Tyree early in the second quarter extended the Miami Trace lead to double digits. Tyree and McClain’s Devin Carter were called for a double-technical foul with 5:42 to play in the second after scuffling for position and begging the referee for a call.
Devin Carter gave the Tigers their first points of the second quarter at the 4:27 mark in the period when he converted a layup and sank the ensuing free throw. The conversion started a 7-0 run by McClain to pull then to within seven points with under four minutes to play in the half. Miami Trace had an answer as Austin Matthews converted two free throws and scored on a layup to push the lead to 25-14 at halftime.
Miami Trace’s Cameron Carter led the way in the third period for the Panthers as he scored 11 of his 21 points and hit a dagger three pointer at the third quarter buzzer to push his team’s lead to 48-26 at the end of three. Garrison Banks had five points in the third for the Tigers as they managed to score 12 points in the period.
The Panther’s Carter scored eight more points in the fourth quarter to help Miami Trace ice the game. As previously mentioned Penwell hit back to back three pointers at the start of the fourth quarter for the Tigers but it was a case of too little too late as the Tigers put together their best quarter of the night with 13 points and only managed to get within 16 points of the Panthers in the final period.
McClain head coach Jesse Mitchell pointed to the tempo of the game as the deal breaker for his team on the night.
“We played their tempo and that was our number one key, control the pace. They sped us up and that is what happens when you get sped up, you don’t make good shots. When we push it we don’t get back on defense and they had so many leak-out baskets tonight,” Mitchell said.
(Box Score)
MTHS: 16-9-23-15
MHS: 7-7-12-13
Miami Trace: Carter 4(4)-1/1-21; Fender (1)-3; Matthews 3-2/2-8; Coe 1-2; Lewis 0/2-0; Cockerill 1(1)-5; Brown 3-1/2-7; Tyree 5(1)-3/4-15
Totals: 18(7)-7/11-63
McClain: Penwell 1(2)-2/2-10; Cockerill 1/2-1; Carter 4(1)-2/5-13; Chiossi 2/2-2; Gray 2-2/2-6; 2(1)-7
Totals: 9(4)-9/13-39
Reach Ryan Applegate at 937-402-2572, or on Twitter @RCApplegate89.
