On a cold, windy Saturday night in Fayette County the Miami Trace Lady Panthers played host to the McClain Lady Tigers in a Frontier Athletic Conference game. McClain had the highest-scoring quarter of the game — the first — in which they scored 14 points en route to a 36-29 victory.

McClain senior Luca Matesic hit the first shot of the game, a three-pointer, to put the Lady Tigers on the board. Sophomore Zoey Grooms made a free throw for Miami Trace and senior Kaitlyn Jett hit a three for a 6-1 McClain lead. Sophomore Ryleigh Vincent made a foul shot for the Lady Panthers and senior Lily Barnes responded with a basket to give McClain an 8-2 lead.

Miami Trace freshman Gracie Lovett scored and after a McClain turnover, Grooms scored to pull the Lady Panthers to within two points at 8-6. McClain closed out the opening quarter on a 6-0 run to take a 14-6 lead.

The teams matched buckets (both scoring eight points) in the second quarter with McClain taking a 22-14 halftime lead.

Both teams exchanged multiple turnovers to begin the third quarter. Junior Brenna Wright scored and converted a foul shot at the 5:40 mark to give McClain a 25-14 lead. Barnes got an offensive rebound and scored and McClain scored on its next possession to push the lead to 29-14 with just over four minutes to play in the penultimate period.

McClain ran some time off the clock before Miami Trace sophomore Cali Kirkpatrick had an offensive rebound and put-back with 2:10 left in the third. Miami Trace freshman Lauren Guess scored the final basket of the quarter, leaving McClain in front, 29-18.

Miami Trace chipped away at McClain’s lead in the early part of the fourth quarter. Senior Jessee Stewart had a steal and took the ball in for two. After being fouled on the play, Stewart made the free throw to pull Miami Trace to within eight points, 29-21. With 6:19 to play, Stewart was sent to the line and made two throws to cut the Lady Tigers’ lead to six points.

Barnes countered by converting a hook shot of sorts and Stewart hit a three to make it a 31-26 game with 5:10 remaining.

The Lady Panthers could get no closer.

McClain had an offensive rebound and scored and a few moments later and freshman Paisley Pryor hit a pair of free throws to move the visitor’s lead to nine, 35-26.

Guess made a free throw at the 1:10 mark and after a McClain turnover, Lovett scored to again pull Miami Trace to within six points, 35-29.

With only 49 seconds remaining, Miami Trace had fouls to give. It took 20 seconds of game time to put McClain at the line. McClain went 0 of 2 and Miami Trace went to the line and also went 0 of 2.

Jett sank 1 of 2 free throws in the final seconds as McClain sealed the 36-29 victory.

Gracie Lovett was the leading scorer for Miami Trace with nine points. She tied with Guess for the team lead in rebounds with five and led her team with five steals.

For McClain, Pryor scored a game-high 12 points.

McClain made 15 of 33 field goal attempts for 45 percent, while Miami Trace shot 9 of 32 for 28 percent.

Both teams had 17 turnovers.

“McClain did a nice job of getting the ball into the paint to their bigs,” Miami Trace head coach Kayla Dettwiller said. “They had some offensive rebounds and stick-backs. We knew coming into the game we were going to be outmatched, size-wise. Eleven (offensive rebounds) is a nice number for them.

“We struggled a little bit with their size on the inside. They sub out Barnes when she gets in foul trouble and they go to Havens and she’s taller than Barnes. We worked on rotations and adjustments, trying to make sure we were able to get their big kids pushed out of the paint to try and limit how many stick-backs they could get tonight.”

McClain coach Shania Massie said, “I think we did well overall. We were up 14-15 points and we followed our game plan there. Our shots weren’t falling in the first part of the second half. Other than that, we were just trying to (run time off the clock) a little bit. They started pressuring us a little bit there and we stopped looking to score. I think that affected us there in the third quarter.

“We (maintained our lead) through the third and fourth (quarters). We just had to make a couple of adjustments there and call a couple of timeouts. I think my girls adjusted well and they followed the game plan pretty well tonight.”

With the loss, Miami Trace is now 5-9 overall, 2-5 in the FAC.

McClain improved to 7-6 overall, 4-3 in the FAC, now standing alone in second place.

Jackson moved to 7-0 in the FAC (11-2 overall) with a 55-31 win over Hillsboro (6-8, 3-4) Saturday.

The win by Jackson assures the Ironladies of a share of the FAC title and one more win will give them the outright championship.

Washington lost at Chillicothe Saturday, 34-33, to fall to 7-8 overall, 3-4 in the FAC.

Chillicothe improved to 2-11 overall, 2-5 in the FAC.

Miami Trace is back on the court Wednesday to take on Hillsboro. The Indians beat Miami Trace back on Dec. 6, 58-56.

McClain hosts Chillicothe Wednesday. The Lady Tigers won on the Lady Cavs’ home court on Dec. 6, 54-27.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

MT 6 8 4 11 — 29

Mc 14 8 7 7 — 36

MIAMI TRACE — Gracie Lovett 3-3-9; Bella Shull 0-0-0; Jessee Stewart 1 (1)-3-8; Cali Kirkpatrick 1-0-2; Lauren Guess 1-2-4; Ryleigh Vincent 1-1-3; Zoey Grooms 1-1-3. TOTALS — 8 (1)-10-29. Free throw shooting: 10 of 17 for 59 percent. Three-point field goal: Stewart. Field goal shooting: 9 of 32 for 28 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 1 of 9 for 11 percent. Rebounds: 19 (9 offensive). Turnovers: 17. Assists: 2. Steals: 9. Fouls: 12.

McCLAIN — Lindsey Hutchinson 0-0-0; Lillie Sauders 0-0-0; Paisley Pryor 5-2-12; Luca Matesic 0 (1)-0-3; Haylee Havens 2-0-4; Kaitlyn Jett 1 (1)-1-6; Lily Barnes 3-0-6; Brenna Wright 1-1-3; Anna Eikenberry 0-0-0; Leah Lovett 1-0-2. TOTALS — 13 (2)-4-36. Free throw shooting: 4 of 8 for 50 percent. Three-point field goals: Matesic, Jett. Field goal shooting: 15 of 33 for 45 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 2 of 11 for 18 percent. Turnovers: 17. Offensive rebounds: 11.

In the jayvee game Saturday, Miami Trace defeated McClain, 32-25.

For McClain, Brie Cummins and Larah Henson shared game scoring honors, each with 10 points. Cummins had two threes and Henson made one three. Leah Lovett scored five points for McClain.

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