Road to FAC title continues to go through McClain with 5-point win over Hillsboro 

GREENFIELD — Last season, the McClain Lady Tigers had the season sweep over their Highland County rival, the Hillsboro Lady Indians, and the rest of the Frontier Athletic Conference. Following their 44-39 win on Saturday afternoon, the Lady Tigers are at the halfway point of repeating that same feat. 

McClain and Hillsboro played in two classic games where the Lady Tigers won both contests with two-point margins. The two teams and school rivals didn’t disappoint this season either, but it was McClain’s prowess on the offensive boards, their ability to knock down free throws and their overall defense that helped them overcome an 11-point first-quarter deficit and ultimately earn the conference win, improving to 5-0 in the FAC standings and 8-1 overall. 

The loss sends Hillsboro to an overall record of 7-2 with a FAC mark of 4-1. The rematch between the two teams is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 31 at Hillsboro High School, as it is also scheduled to be the final FAC game of the season. 

“We’ve been working on our defensive game, and we knew we had to have a great defensive game if we wanted to come out on top. We knew we had to pack it in, cover their shooters, and they (HHS) are a fabulous team,” McClain head coach Shania Massie said. “They have three really great players. I give them full credit for that, they put that extra work in, they fight till they're done. They all played their hearts out, and I think two of them fouled out, but they still kept fighting and still kept playing. 

“They are a great team, they know how to get the ball in the hole, but thankfully we were able to come out on top.”

Leah Lovett had her breakout game of the season, leading the Lady Tigers with a career-high 16 points by making two 3-pointers, three two-point baskets and going 2-of-4 from the free-throw line. Paisley Pryor finished with 11 points, as she had two two-point baskets and she was 7-of-8 from the free-throw line. 

Massie spoke about the play of Lovett in the FAC win. 

“That’s probably her best game as a McClain Tiger,” Massie said. “She has worked hard, and she’s done everything I’ve asked of her. They (HHS) collapsed on our other player, and we were able to get her the ball, and her two threes were big for her.

“I’ve given her the green light for that, and she definitely knocked them down tonight.”

Larah Henson finished with nine points, making a two-point basket and going 7-of-8 in her free-throw attempts for the Lady Tigers. Allie Burgess totaled six points off two 3-pointers, and Brie Cummins scored two points off two made free throws. 

“[Burgess] definitely changed the adversity of the game, the momentum,” Massie said. “Those were big threes, and she does great in practice, and I tell her every day to do some stuff in the game. I saw her in a shoot-around this morning and she was doing that, and I told her, ‘do that in the game, Big Al.’ 

“You know what? She did that in the game today, but those were great threes and she got us going, for sure.”

As a team, the Lady Tigers were 18-of-24 from the free-throw line, making 75 percent of their free-throw attempts, including going 12-of-16 in the fourth quarter. 

“The girls were just ready, and they knew this game was going against our big rival, and I think everybody knows that,” Massie said. “We had the shoot-arounds in the morning, and we’ve been prepping for this game for two days, and the girls came ready to play. They have been talking about how winning this was one of their goals for the season. They want to get that gold ball again, and we are just fighting for that gold ball this season.”

Hillsboro had four players reach the scoring column, as Tylee Davis led with 16 points off five two-point baskets, and she was 6-of-7 from the free-throw line. The second half was Davis’ best half, scoring 14 of her 16 points in the final two quarters, with nine of those points in the fourth quarter. 

Ella Jordan finished the game with 14 points by making four two-point baskets, a 3-pointer, and she was 3-of-4 in her free-throw attempts. Jordan was strong in the first half with 10 of her 14 total points, including making a 3-pointer in the first quarter. 

Hillsboro’s Kobie Miles finished with seven points, as she made two baskets in the first quarter plus she was 3-of-4 from the free-throw line, with those points coming in the fourth frame. Piper Wilkin chipped in with two points in the scoring column for the Lady Indians.

Though it was McClain gaining the win, it was the visiting Hillsboro squad that set the pace in the first frame, striking first with a layup by Miles, who went the length of the court to score the two-point basket. Pryor answered with a basket for the Lady Tigers, but from there the Lady Indians went on an 11-0 run from the 6:42 mark to the 1:03 mark to take an 11-point lead at 13-2. 

That run of points began with a 3-pointer by Jordan, followed by Jordan then making a basket in the paint. Next was a steal and layup from Davis, as she also went the distance of the court for two points at the 4:16 mark of the first. 

McClain’s Coach Massie continued to have her team battle through the adversity, not calling a timeout, forcing her veteran team to overcome Hillsboro’s continued streak of scoring with a basket by Jordan, and after HHS won a jump ball, Miles sank a basket for the aforementioned 11-point lead. 

“That’s what we kind of do,” Massie said of not calling a timeout. “I try to have my kids fight that adversity and see how they respond to it. I don’t call that timeout, I let them do that, and they stepped up and fought that adversity and did everything they had to do to come back in that game.”

Coach Massie made the right choice by keeping her timeouts and having her team make the necessary adjustments while in battle, as Henson broke the run with a basket at the 44-second mark, and Lovett came back with a 3-pointer that bounced in the air off the rim and through the hoop with 3.5 seconds left, cutting the deficit to six points when the first frame ended. 

McClain didn't have the best start to the second frame with a turnover, followed by a basket scored by Wilkin, who picked up the loose ball, made a turn and scored two points, but after that the momentum started to sway toward the home team Lady Tigers. 

MHS learned from their first-quarter woes, amped up both the offensive and defensive pressure, and went on a scoring run of their own, making two 3-pointers, a two-point basket and four free throws for a 12-0 run of their own that started at the 4:00 mark and ended with .58 left in the second for a 19-15 lead. 

The Lady Tigers’ scoring run started with a 3-pointer by Burgess, and then came two made free throws from Lovett. Next were two free throws made by Pryor, another 3-pointer by Burgess, and a layup from Cummins that turned an 8-point deficit at the 6:05 mark to a four-point lead with .58 left before halftime. 

HHS scored the final three points of the frame off free throws made by Jordan, leaving the score 19-18 at halftime with McClain holding on to the lead. 

“I think they (McClain) got a little more aggressive defensively and it started to get to us a little bit, and I don’t think we got the offensive boards against them like we expected to,” HHS head coach Heather Storer said. “This is probably the best offensive rebounding team you’ll see in this league, and we didn’t take it away.

“I think the biggest thing is even when we are not hitting shots, we’ve got to go get offensive boards. Instead of doing that, we were standing and watching the ball going up, and we didn’t go get our second-chance shots. So, I think that is the difference in the game. We didn’t box them out on their offensive boards, and we didn’t go get ours.”

Coach Storer also spoke about having just five points in the second quarter as a team.

“Having only five points is insane,” she said. “That’s one of the things we wrote on the board, that we can’t go dormant offensively. We did a good job offensively, holding them to under 44 points (McClain’s season average). That's great, but we can’t score 39 and win a basketball game.”

The third frame saw McClain add two points to their lead, outscoring HHS, 9-7 in the quarter, with the Lady Tigers having points from Cummins, Henson, Pryor and Lovett. HHS held the lead in the third quarter twice following a three-point play by Davis, and later a steal and layup from Jordan with 5:45 left in the quarter. HHS also had scoring by Davis later in the quarter with two points from the free-throw line. 

That same third quarter saw Pryor and Henson force tied scores, and it was a 3-pointer by Lovett that put MHS in the lead at 26-23 with 2:11 on the clock. Eventually, following points by Davis, Lovett pushed McClain’s lead back to three points with the final bucket of the frame for a 28-25 lead going into the fourth quarter. 

The two teams combined for 30 points in the fourth frame, with the Lady Tigers outscoring HHS, 16-14 in the quarter. McClain never lost the lead in the fourth frame, holding on to a lead of no lower than three points and no more than six points. 

Hillsboro and McClain also combined to go 18-of-24 from the free-throw line, with MHS making 12 of those shots as Henson had five, Pryor had five and Cummins had two made free throws in the final quarter. Lovett also scored the other four points in the fourth frame with two baskets from the field. 

“That is honestly impressive for us,” Massie said of their fourth-quarter free-throw shooting. “We haven’t been the best free-throw shooting team this season. We are probably shooting around 33-percent from the free-throw line every time before this game, and that just shows you the girls were focused and they knew what they had to do, and they knew they had to fight that adversity.”

The Lady Indians’ other scoring in the fourth away from the free-throw line was off a basket by Jordan and three baskets from the field by Davis. 

“I don’t like to whine about getting a lot of contact, but man … we weren’t winning any 50-50s or any jump balls,” Storer said. “I felt like everything was against us for some reason, and when we did get to the line, I think we did OK. I mean, 12-of-17 isn’t that bad, but we’re a team that gets to the line 30 times a game, and that’s crazy we weren't able to get to the line.”

Hillsboro will have little rest as they will be back on the court for a non-conference game Monday, Dec. 22 at home against the Western Brown Lady Broncos. 

McClain is scheduled to play again on Saturday, Jan. 10 against the Chillicothe Lady Cavaliers. McClain’s game on Jan. 3 against Whiteoak has been rescheduled to Thursday, Feb. 12. 

Again, now the FAC will still go though McClain as they currently sit in first place, and Coach Massie knows that.

“We definitely have a target on our back, and we knew that coming in, we knew that from last year,” Massie said. “We are fighting for that gold ball, that is one of our goals. At the end of the day, we are always going to work hard, but always going to have to improve on something.”

BOX SCORE 
HHS    13 05 07 14 — 39
MHS    07 12 09 16 — 44

MCCLAIN (44) — L.Henson 1 (0) 7-8 9, P.Pryor 2 (0) 7-8 11, A.Burgess 0 (2) 0-0 6, B.Cummins 0 (0) 2-4 2, L.Lovett 3 (2) 2-4 16. TOTALS: 6 (4) 18-24 44. 

HILLSBORO (39) — E.Jordan 4 (1) 3-4 14, K.Miles 2 (0) 3-4 7, T.Davis 5 (0) 6-7 16, Pi.Wilkin 1 (0) 0-0 2, TA.Scruggs 0 (0) 0-2 0. TOTALS: 12 (1) 12-17 39.