GREENFIELD — The Washington Lady Blue Lions visited McClain High School in Greenfield for a Frontier Athletic Conference game against the Lady Tigers Wednesday night and McClain came away with a 46-23 victory.
McClain junior Payton Pryor was the game’s leading scorer with 15 points. She was also in double figures in rebounds with 12 for a double-double.
Senior Evelyn Vanzant hit two threes and scored a total of 10 points.
Washington junior Allie Mongold led her team with eight points.
It was a very good start to the game for McClain as the Lady Tigers took a 9-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Washington got on the board with a three-point basket by Estep at the 6:07 mark of the second quarter.
This proved to be the best scoring quarter for Washington, as well as their best defensive effort, outscoring McClain 11-6 to pull to within four points at the half on a buzzer-beating basket by Alizae Ryan. It was 15-11 McClain at the break.
McClain showed how prolific it can be in the third quarter, hitting 7 of 14 shots and scoring 20 points, while holding the Lady Lions to seven to increase its lead to 35-18.
The Lady Tigers scored 11 points in the fourth quarter to five for Washington to put the final score at 46-23.
It was McClain’s second game this week and just its second contest since Dec. 22.
“It does seem like we’re a little bit refreshed and we’re not worn out,” McClain coach Jarrod Haines said. “We got off to a good start tonight. That was a huge key. It kind of went away there in the second quarter. They responded to the halftime speech. They really came out (in the second half) and did a good job.
“Payton was huge for us. She always has a knack for the ball, but tonight she got off to a good start offensively. She does a lot of good things for us. One thing I thought she did a really good job of was offensive rebounding, especially in the first half.”
Washington coach Samantha Bilh said, “I thought we came out and had a really good first half. We were really solid defensively in the first half. The girls were playing together, they were communicating. We were making the right reads. Then in the second half it was just two completely different halves. We gave up a lot of points. We didn’t execute on the defensive end.
“We had one of our starters out, so that hurt us. I had to play a couple of kids who normally play mostly jayvee. It was nice to see them get the experience, but it just made things harder for our varsity game.”
Washington (now 3-12 overall, 0-7 in the FAC) is off Saturday after a scheduled game at Hillsboro was postponed. Washington will host Wilmington on Tuesday.
McClain improved to 5-7 overall, 3-3 in the FAC. The Lady Tigers have a game at Lynchburg-Clay High School scheduled for Monday.
Elsewhere in the FAC Wednesday, Jackson defeated Miami Trace, 48-45, in overtime.
Jackson solidified its standing in first place in the conference at 6-1.
Miami Trace is now 4-3 in the FAC.
Chillicothe (3-2) was scheduled to play Hillsboro (3-3) Wednesday, but that game was postponed.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
W 0 11 7 5 — 23
Mc 9 6 20 11 — 46
WASHINGTON — Aaralyne Estep 0 (2)-1-7; Allie Mongold 3-2-8; Trinity George 0-4-4; Calleigh Wead-Salmi 0-0-0; Aysha Henry 0-0-0; Megan Sever 0-2-2; Alizae Ryan 1-0-2; Addi Shiltz 0-0-0. TOTALS — 4 (2)-9-23. Free throw shooting: 9 of 16 for 56 percent. Three-point field goals: Estep, 2. Field goal shooting: 6 of 39 for 15 percent. Turnovers: 9.
McCLAIN — Evelyn Vanzant 2 (2)-0-10; Lindsey Hutchinson 0-0-0; Payton Pryor 4-7-15; Katie Cook 0-0-0; Iva Easter 3-1-7; Jaden McCoy 1-0-2; Haylee Havens 1-0-2; Kaitlyn Jett 0-0-0; Lily Barnes 2 (1)-1-8; Brenna Wright 0-0-0; Anna Eikenberry 0-0-0; Luca Matesic 0-0-0; Madi Sykes 0-2-2. TOTALS — 13 (3)-11-46. Free throw shooting: 11 of 18 for 61 percent. Three-point field goals: Vanzant, 2; Barnes. Field goal shooting: 16 of 46 for 35 percent. Turnovers: 9.
McClain wins jayee game
In the junior-varsity game Wednesday, McClain beat Washington, 13-8. The game was played for only two quarters.
Brenna Wright of McClain was the game’s leading scorer with six points. Lindsey Hutchinson scored four points, Luca Matesic scored two and Katie Cook had one.
For Washington, Jada Ryan scored four points and Kaithlyn Maquiling and Trinity George both scored two points.
Chris Hoppes is the sports editor for the Record-Herald inWashington C.H.
