It wasn't pretty but the Miami Trace Lady Panthers picked up a victory Wednesday night over the McClain Lady Tigers 49-39 at McClain High School.
Early in the first quarter the game was tied at 7-7, then Miami Trace went into a triangle trap on defense and were able to go on a 13-2 run to close out the first leading 20-9. From then on the game was played relatively even with McClain outscoring the Panthers 21-18 in the second half. Trace led at the half after outscoring the Tigers in the second quarter 11-9 to take a 31-18 halftime 4-lead.
In the first half McClain shot 7-21 overall for 33% while Miami Trace was 14-26 for 54%, Trace committed eleven first half turnovers and McClain had seven of their own. The biggest impact was on the boards as the Panthers had thirteen compared to just five for McClain.
Victoria Fliehman kicked off the second half with a bang as she buried a three off the opening in-bounds play but it would be half of the total third quarter points that Miami Trace could muster. Tanner Bryant picked up her fourth foul and McClain was able to take advantage outscoring Trace 9-6 in the third and 12-11 in the fourth to pull out the 49-39 victory.
On the night McClain shot 13-35 for 37%, including 4-16 from behind the arc. They committed sixteen turnovers and pulled down eleven rebounds. They were led in scoring by Junior point guard Maddy Stegbauer's 12 points, followed by Freshman Kyla Burchett's 10.
Miami Trace was led by Senior Victoria Fliehman's 14 points and timely shooting, and Tanner Bryant added 11. Miami Trace shot 20-46 for 43%, pulled down 24 rebounds but committed 20 turnovers and was 7-13 from the charity stripe.
McClain (0-3) welcomes Portsmouth Notre Dame to town on Saturday, December 9th.
Miami Trace (4-0) is home on Saturday against. Reynoldsburg at 4:30 p.m.