McClain falls to Miami Trace

The Miami Trace Panthers improved to 8-2 overall and 3-1 in the Frontier Athletic Conference after easily defeating McClain 63-32 Friday night in Greenfield.

Ten Panthers reached the scoring column for Miami Trace, led by senior 6’8” post-player Adam Guthrie and Bryan Phipps, both of whom had a game-high 11 points each.

McClain was also able to get eight players in the books scoring, but the difference was no Tiger player was able to score in double figures, and senior point guard Jordan Bell was held scoreless, which hasn’t happened all season long.

“There’s no secret that Miami Trace is a pretty good basketball team,” said McClain head coach Jarrod Haines. “They’re probably one of the best around, and defensively tonight their pressure really got to us.

“We kind of went scoreless there in the second quarter and with their length and defensive pressure they were able to capitalize off our turnovers.”

The Tigers looked good early on and led 5-2 after a made three by Hudson Lovett, but Miami Trace quickly answered with a long ball by Luke Armstrong to tie the score.

The Panthers then went on a 15-5 run the rest of the quarter to lead 20-11 heading to the second period.

“I thought our kids played hard, and the way we started off the game was really good,” Haines said.

Miami Trace continued to extend their advantage in the second stanza and built a double-digit lead at the half, 32-15 after outscoring the Tigers 12-4 in the second.

Sophomore Matthew Cummins was McClain’s only bright spot offensively in the period when he scored all four of the Tigers’ points. Things continued to unravel for McClain in the second half when the Panthers used a full-court pressure defense to force the young Tigers into multiple miscues that resulted into easy baskets.

Coach Haines continued to try several different player combinations in the third and four quarters to try to get some offensive spark.

Freshman Lucas Banks was able to enter the game in the third period and score five straight points on a made long three and another nice jump shot.

“The best thing about the game of basketball is we turn around tomorrow and play another game, so we can’t think about this one too long,” Haines said. “We’ve got to worry about ourselves and look at what we need to do better and come back out tomorrow night and compete.”

McClain 5-5 (0-4) entertains Unioto Saturday, Jan. 10 in a non-conference game.

Individual scoring for McClain: Brady Binegar 2, 0, 5, Lucas Banks 2, 0, 5, Connor Chandler 0, 3, 3, Julien Evans 1, 0, 3, Hudson Lovett 2, 1, 6, Matthew Cummins 2, 2, 6, Leland Bond 1, 0, 2, Elijah Storer 1, 0, 2. Totals: 11, 6, 32. 3-point goals: Binegar 1, Banks 1, Evans 1 and Lovett 1.

McClain converted 6-of-8 free throws for 73 percent.  

The Panthers made just 7-of-16 foul shots for 43 percent.