Jackson’s strong defensive effort takes down Lady Tigers

The Jackson Ironladies showed why they have won back-to-back Frontier Athletic Conference titles and are favored to win a third after defeating McClain, 58-40 Wednesday night in Greenfield.

Jackson returns four starters from last year’s championship team, with all having three or four years of varsity experience.

One big bright spot for the Lady Tigers was the play of freshman Paisley Pryor, who for a second straight game led them in scoring, this time a team-high 17 points, most of which were hard-earned and tightly contested.

“Paisley is just a freshman, but she plays like an upperclassman, and that’s something I really like about her,” said McClain head coach Shania Massie. “She always seems to keep us going and staying positive on the floor.”

The Ironladies used an aggressive full-court pressure defense the entire game that forced McClain into numerous turnovers that resulted into easy baskets.

“Their pressure defensively hurt us, and our girls really struggled against it turning the ball over way too many times, but we made some adjustments at halftime and did a much better job in the second half,” Massie said.

McClain trailed 9-7 midway through the opening period with Pryor accounting for all seven of the Lady Tigers’ points but the Ironladies finished the quarter with an 8-0 run and held a double-digit 17-7 advantage at the horn.

The Lady Tigers began the second stanza with a little 7-2 run of their own and trailed 19-14, but like in the opening frame, Jackson finished the second quarter outscoring McClain 11-2 and held a comfortable 30-16 lead at the break. Scoring for the Lady Tigers in the second period were Kaitlyn Jett with three points, Haylee Havens adding two points, Lily Barnes scoring two points and Pryor with two points.

In the third period, both teams traded baskets early, but McClain got a little spark at the 4:00 mark after Pryor drilled a long 3-pointer, cutting the deficit to 36-24. However, another Jackson 8-2 run at the end of the third pushed their advantage back to 44-26 heading to the fourth.  

Senior post player Lily Barnes had a good offensive quarter in the third, scoring six points for the Lady Tigers.

“Lily struggled a little bit in the first half, but we got her calmed down at halftime, and I told her what I needed from her in the second half and she did everything that I asked her to do,” Massie said.

McClain went to their own full-court press to begin the final quarter and were able to pull to within 11 points at 49-38 with four minutes left to play but Jackson was able to convert 6-of-8 foul shots down the stretch and pulled away at the end. The Lady Tigers never quit playing hard and showed a lot of heart against the much more experienced and talented Jackson team.

Senior Luca Matesic was the offensive catalyst for McClain in the fourth, scoring eight points, which included a pair of trifectas from behind the arc.

“We’ll get better, and now I wish I would have went to our press earlier in the game,” said Massie. “I thought it kind of sped them up, and we were able to convert on some of their turnovers, especially in the fourth quarter when we made it an 11-point game.

“Now we need to look past this game and build on it and learn from it and get ready for our next opponent and focus on what we need to do to get better.”

McClain (0-1, 1-1) was led by Pryor’s 17 points, followed by Barnes and Matesic, who scored 8 points each.  Rounding out the scoring for the Lady Tigers were Jett with three and Havens and Katie Cook with two points each. Three-point field goals for McClain included one from Jett and two each from Matesic and Pryor. The Lady Tigers converted 7-of-9 free throws for 78 percent.

Jackson (1-0, 2-0) was led by T.J. Carpenter, who scored a game-high 24 points, followed by Mattie Walburn, who also reached double digits with 17.  Kenzie Davis and Sydney Carpenter just missed scoring in double figures with nine points each. The Ironladies converted 21-of-27 foul shots, also for 78 percent.

The Lady Tigers will host FAC foe Miami Trace on Saturday, Dec. 2 with a noon JV start time.