As the regular season begins to wind down, the Miami Trace Lady Panthers basketball team welcomed the Lady Mustangs from Lynchburg-Clay High School for a non-conference game Monday. The second quarter was the turning point as Lynchburg-Clay won the game, 54-43.

It was Senior Night at Miami Trace and the Lady Panthers recognized their four seniors: Kaelin Pfeifer, Hillary McCoy, Mallory Lovett and Hillery ‘Bean’ Jacobs, as well as Lynchburg-Clay’s three seniors, Kalyn Rich, Bryanna Price and Karlie Tipton.

Miami Trace began the game with an early 8-3 lead. At the end of the first quarter Lynchburg-Clay was in front, 13-12.

The Lady Mustangs outscored Miami Trace 16-8 in the second quarter and took a 29-20 lead into the locker room. Lynchburg-Clay led by as many as 11 points in the second quarter.

Miami Trace went on an 8-0 run in the third quarter to pull to within three points at 31-28. Lynchburg-Clay had its lead back up to nine points (40-31) at the end of the third quarter.

The Lady Mustangs led by as many as 13 points in the fourth quarter and the Lady Panthers drew as close as seven points until time expired with the visitors taking the 54-43 victory.

Tying for game scoring honors with Jacobs was Lynchburg-Clay junior Macy Etienne, who hit five three-point field goals and finished with 21 points. Junior Jade Massey scored 15 and Price scored 12 for the Lady Mustangs.

Miami Trace was led by Hillery ‘Bean’ Jacobs with 21 points.

“This is the last week of our regular season before we start tournament play,” Lynchburg-Clay head coach Whitney Lewis said. “Playing a strong, quality team like Miami Trace is going to help prepare us for the tournament. It’s a non-league game but a great, competitive game. We ran through a lot of our stuff and executed really well tonight. I was really happy with a lot of things that we did. Macy (Etienne) had a really good shooting night.”

Overall, the Lady Mustangs shot 49 percent from the field and 40 percent from three-point range.

“I was happy with our defensive effort,” Lewis said.

Miami Trace fell to 11-9 and will play at Adena High School on Thursday with the jayvee game scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Miami Trace will host five games Saturday against Washington. The day will start with the freshman boys at 1:30 p.m. and then followed (with times approximate) by the jayvee girls at 3 p.m., jayvee boys at 4:30 p.m., varsity girls at 6 p.m. and the boys varsity game at 7:30 p.m.

Washington and Miami Trace’s varsity boys basketball teams are both 8-1 in the FAC. The winner of Saturday’s game will be the outright conference champion for the 2022-23 season.

Lynchburg-Clay improved to 12-8 on the season and will host Peebles for Senior Night on Thursday and then host Western Brown on Saturday. The jayvee game starts at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Lynchburg-Clay wins jayvee

game with Miami Trace

In the jayvee game Monday, Lynchburg-Clay defeated Miami Trace, 41-29.

Avery Shope was the game’s leading scorer for Lynchburg-Clay with 14 points. She had one three-point basket. Noel Barnhill scored 10 points for the Lady Mustangs, followed by Joslyn Rockey with eight, Addisyn Downey with four, Morgan Baker hit one three-point shot and finished with three points and Sophia Michael scored two points.

Miami Trace was led by Ella McCarty with nine points. Bella Shull had seven points. McCarty and Shull both hit one three-point basket for Miami Trace. Kamika Bennett scored five points, Zoey Grooms had four points and Mya Babineau and Ryleigh Vincent both added two points for Miami Trace.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

MT 12 8 11 12 — 43

L-C 13 16 11 14 — 54

MIAMI TRACE — Ellie Robinette 0-0-0; Kaelin Pfeifer 2-0-4; Hillary McCoy 2-0-4; Sue Morris 0-0-0; Jessee Stewart 1 (1)-3-8; Nevaeh Lyons 2-0-4; Zoey Grooms 0-0-0; Mallory Lovett 1-0-2; Hillery Jacobs 9 (1)-0-21; Ryleigh Vincent 0-0-0. TOTALS — 17 (2)-3-43. Free throw shooting: 3 of 4 for 75 percent. Three-point field goals: Jacobs, Stewart. Field goal shooting: 19 of 53 for 36 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 2 of 14 for 14 percent. Rebounds: 22 (7 offensive). Turnovers: 19. Assists: 11. Steals: 13. Fouls: 9.

LYNCHBURG-CLAY — Macy Etienne 2 (5)-2-21; Kalyn Rich 0-0-0; Bryanna Price 6-0-12; Addison West 2-0-4; Jade Massey 4 (1)-4-15; Karlie Tipton 0-0-0; Allie Waits 1-0-2; Ella Barry 0-0-0. TOTALS — 15 (6)-6-54. Free throw shooting: 6 of 7 for 86 percent. Three-point field goals: Etienne, 5; Massey. Field goal shooting: 21 of 43 for 49 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 6 of 15 for 40 percent. Turnovers: 23. Offensive rebounds: 12.

Chris Hoppes is the sports editor for the Record-Herald in Washington C.H.