Lady Tigers defeat Clinton-Massie for 11th straight win

The McClain varsity girls basketball team overcame a slow start, and behind the hot hand of junior point guard Paisley Pryor, who scored a game-high 25 points, they were able to defeat non-conference foe Clinton-Massie 42-26 in Greenfield Monday night.

McClain has now won 11 straight games after a season-opening loss at Logan Elm and now stands atop the Frontier Athletic Conference with a perfect 6-0 record, which is almost a carbon-copy of how the Lady Tigers started the season last year.

“This was a pretty physical game tonight, but we need to be ready for that,” McClain head coach Shania Massie said. “We’re going to have games like this against teams that will be tougher to play against.”

The opening quarter saw both teams really struggle to score points, and McClain held just a slim 7-6 advantage.

Clinton-Massie got a pair of made free throws by freshman Bristol Brady to begin the second period for a 8-7 Lady Falcons lead, but that was their last lead and as close as Clinton-Massie was to MHS the rest of the game.

The Lady Tigers used their patented smothering defense and Pryor’s offensive spark to outscore the Lady Falcons 14-5 the rest of the quarter and take a 21-12 halftime advantage. Pryor scored 10 points in the frame and led all scorers at the break with 15.

“Paisley (Pryor) has been really stepping up for us lately scoring, and I think not having a JV game tonight kind of got us out of our rhythm, but hopefully that will help us down the road in preparing for the tournament,” Massie said.

McClain continued to play add-on in the third period when they outscored Clinton-Massie 13-9 and grabbed a double-digit lead 34-21. Pryor again was the offensive catalyst in the third, scoring 10 of McClain’s 13 points.

The Lady Tigers finished off the game by winning the fourth period 8-7 and coasted to the impressive non-conference win.  Larah Henson and Leah Lovett accounted for all eight of McClain’s points with both scoring four points each.

Another important key to this victory for the Lady Tigers was the fact that Coach Massie was able to use several different player combinations throughout the game.

“This team is never selfish with the ball, and that’s all I can ask for,” Massie said. “Everyone is really sharing the ball pretty well, and that’s what makes this a team game.

“We played a lot of different combinations tonight. I think that’s important, and hopefully that will get some of our younger players better prepared for next year. Honestly, we need several girls to step up and help us in every game from here on out.”

The Lady Tigers return to FAC play Wednesday, Jan. 14 when they travel to Washington.

Individual scoring for McClain: Larah Henson 3,0,6, Paisley Pryor 10,2,25, McKenzie West 1,1,3, Allie Burgess 1,0,2, Leah Lovett 2,2,6, Totals 17,5,42. 3-point goals: Pryor 3.

McClain converted 5-of-8 free throws for 62 percent.