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Lady Tigers’ defense shuts down Chillicothe

The Highland County Press - Staff Photo - Create Article
McClain's Brenna Wright and Chillicothe's Kendra Allen battle for a rebound in their game Wednesday at MHS. (HCP Photos/Jim Jones)
By
Jim Jones, The Highland County Press

The McClain varsity girls basketball team improved to 9-6 overall and 5-3 in the Frontier Athletic Conference after defeating Chillicothe, 41-30 Wednesday night in Greenfield.

The Lady Tigers have won four of their last five games and seem to be playing some of their best basketball during that stretch, especially on the defensive end.

McClain was led in scoring by freshman Paisley Pryor, who had a game-high 15 points, and Anna Eikenberry and Kaitlyn Jett both just missed double digits, scoring nine points each.  

Greenfield jumped out to an 11-4 first-period advantage and continued to lead at the half 25-17 after outscoring the Lady Cavaliers 14-13 in the second period.

Pryor led all scorers at the half with 10 points, including a couple of long balls, and junior Miranda McCloy scored nine points in the opening half to lead Chillicothe, which included back-to-back trifectas which gave the Lady Cavaliers their only lead of the game midway in the quarter.

“Chillicothe is a pretty good team,” said McClain head coach Shania Massie. “They’re athletic and quick, and they really get after you. They’re a dangerous team when they want to play.”

The third quarter was a sloppy, turnover-plagued period by both teams, when the Lady Cavaliers used their full-court pressure defense to force McClain into several miscues.

“I think we handled their traps when they went to the full-court press, and they kind of sped us up a little bit,” Massie said. “But I thought we still managed to find open people and got some good shots out of it.”

Chillicothe did win the third quarter by outscoring the Lady Tigers 8-4, but still trailed 29-25 heading to the fourth.

McClain came out of their patented man-to-man defense to begin the final period and opened in a 2-3 zone, but a long three by Kiera Archer at the 6:00 mark pulled the Lady Cavaliers to within two points 30-28, and the Lady Tigers quickly went back to man defense.

Pryor’s third 3-pointer of the game with 5:25 remaining in regulation gave McClain some breathing room and a 34-28 advantage.

After Chillicothe’s Savannah Knapp hit a jumper to cut the McClain deficit to four points at the 4:00 mark, the Lady Tigers closed out the game with a 7-0 run with the senior Jett scoring the final five points for McClain with a long three and a pair of made foul shots.

Eikenberry turned in a solid all-around game for the Lady Tigers, scoring the aforementioned nine points and gaining several rebounds.

“Anna (Eikenberry) played a good game for us tonight,” said Massie “Whether she starts or comes off the bench, she always plays pretty well. I think everyone who played tonight played pretty well and contributed like I asked them to do.

“I didn’t play some of our girls as much as I wanted to tonight, and that’s on me. Everyone needs to know their roles on this team and work on the things they need to work on to get better.”

Individual scoring for McClain: Pryor 15, Eikenberry nine, Jett nine, Lily Barnes five and Luca Matesic three. Scoring 3-point field goals for McClain were Pryor (three), Jett (one) and Matesic (one).

The Lady Tigers were 8-of-11 from the foul line for 66 percent.

Chillicothe was led by McCloy, who scored a team-high 11 points with nine coming in the first half, followed by Archer, who tallied eight, and Avery Cox had seven.

McClain’s next game is Saturday, Jan. 20 when they travel to Eastern Brown H.S. and play Minford at 9 a.m.