Lady Mustangs bow out in Div. VI district semifinals; fall to Federal Hocking

Lady Mustangs bow out in Div. VI district semifinals; fall to Federal Hocking 

By STEPHEN FORSHA
The Highland County Press

CHILLICOTHE — Having just seven players on the roster Monday evening, the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs battled tough throughout their Division VI SE District Semifinal game against the top-seeded Federal Hocking Lady Lancers.

That said, the No. 1 seeded Lady Lancers were too strong with consistent shooting against the No. 8 seeded Lady Mustangs, resulting in the LCHS season coming to a close by a 68-53 score at Southeastern High School. 

The loss leaves Lynchburg-Clay with a 9-14 overall record for the season and a 1-1 mark this postseason, as LCHS defeated Paint Valley in the district quarterfinals last week. 

Federal Hocking improves to 14-8 overall as they advance to the district final game on Saturday at SEHS with a 1 p.m. start against the No. 5 seeded Valley Lady Indians.

“We fought really hard today, and we knew we were going to be outmatched. On paper we knew we were supposed to lose, but the game isn’t played on paper, and I thought we came out and did a good job of just fighting,” Lynchburg-Clay head coach Whitney Lewis said. “There was a moment in the third quarter we had them within single digits, and they (Federal Hocking) shot the ball really well, and we shot the ball really well too, but unfortunately we were just short a few points on a few possessions to make a difference in the game.” 

In the district semifinal contest, the Lady Lancers had two players score 16 points each and they were Brenlee Cottrill and Rorie Tabler. Cottrill finished with five two-point baskets, one 3-pointer, and she was 3-of-9 from the free-throw line. Tabler totaled five two-pointers, one 3-pointer, and she went 3-of-4 in her free throw attempts.

Federal Hocking’s Laura Blower was next with a 14-point game, totaling four 3-pointers and going 2-of-2 from the free-throw line. 

Other final scoring totals for FHHS were: Juni Ballew (4), Mckayla Nelson (6), Takira Walker (8) and Taylor Snedden (4). 

Lynchburg-Clay’s leading scorer was Lily Ferguson with 19 points as she made six two-point baskets, two 3-pointers, and finished 1-of-1 from the free-throw line. Ferguson also added one rebound and one assist. 

Teammate Addy Carraher totaled 12 points from four 3-pointers, plus she had two rebounds. 

LC’s Savannah Bell finished the game with nine points off three two-pointers and one 3-pointer.

Joslyn Rockey scored five points off a 3-pointer and she was 2-of-2 in her free-throw attempts, plus she collected eight rebounds, eight assists and one block.  

Madison McMullen also finished with five points by making two two-point field goals and she was 1-of-2 from the free throw line. McMullen also had six rebounds and two assists. 

Ava McLaughlin ended the game with three points as she made a 3-pointer, plus she added two rebounds to her final totals. 

“This is a big floor, it’s tournament time, we haven’t played in a week,” Lewis said. “I’m not making excuses by any means, but there were moments in the game where we needed to be more physical to get some rebounds, and we were just a little short on that, mainly because our kids were just giving everything they had, and we were kind of tanked. Give credit to Federal Hocking, there are a lot of players there, and they fight hard. We were battling right with them, but unfortunately we came up on the short end.”

The Lady Lancers started the scoring first with a 3-pointer, but LCHS quickly answered with a 3-pointer from Rockey at the 7:16 mark of the first for a 3-3 tied score. Lynchburg-Clay took the lead with 6:44 on the clock following a put-back by McMullen in the first frame, but Nelson of Federal Hocking drained a 3-pointer with 5:20 left in the first for the lead. 

LCHS regained the lead with 5:05 left in the opening frame off another basket by McMullen, but after a 14-0 run by Federal Hocking from the 3:47 mark to the 1:22 mark the Lady Mustangs trailed by 13 points at 20-7, and eventually trailed 23-11 once the first quarter ended as LC’s Ferguson scored the final four points for LCHS in the first frame off two baskets. 

“We didn't lay down and die tonight,” Lewis said. “You see us fight every single time. Even when they made a run and we were down 20-7 in the first quarter, we just came back and hit some big shots to keep us in the basketball game. That’s a testament to our kids and just continuing to work for everything they had. 

“I said at the beginning of the year, we are going to be outsized every game, and I thought tonight we gave it everything we had.”

When halftime arrived it was Federal Hocking leading the Lady Mustangs 37-23 with the Lady Lancers leading by as many as 14 points at the start and finish of the frame, and LC got as close as seven points on two occasions in the second frame. 

LCHS made it a 12-point deficit with a basket from Bell, followed by a 3-pointer from Carraher. Later in the frame, Rockey sank a 3-pointer with 5:00 on the clock, and then she made two free throws for the aforementioned seven-point deficit with 4:20 left in the second. 

The Lady Mustangs scored two more points in the second quarter when Ferguson scored two points with 3:32 on the clock, but Federal Hocking scored the final seven points of the second quarter for the 14-point halftime lead over Lynchburg-Clay. 

The Lady Mustangs scored 17 points in the third quarter as Ferguson had 11 points in the quarter with two consecutive 3-pointers (2:36 and 2:06 marks), plus a layup and a made free throw. The third for LCHS also saw Bell score two points, McLaughlin sink a 3-pointer (1:05) and a free throw was made by McMullen.

Lynchburg-Clay in the fourth quarter scored 13 points with Carraher making two 3-pointers (6:43 and .35). Ferguson sank a two-pointer, and Bell scored five points including a 3-pointer. 

Federal Hocking in the second half scored 18 points in the third and 13 points in the fourth frame. For the game, they totaled 16 two-point baskets, nine 3-pointers (Blower 4, Nelson 2, Cottrill 1, Walker 1, Tabler 1), and they were 9-of-17 from the free-throw line. 

Lynchburg-Clay for the game had team totals of 11 two-point baskets, nine 3-pointers (Carraher 4, Ferguson 2, Bell 1, Rockey 1 and McLaughlin 1). They also were 4-of-5 from the free-throw line, along with collecting 26 rebounds (seven offensive), 13 assists, two steals and one block. 

Seniors for LCHS are Joslyn Rockey and Ava McLaughlin. 

“We lose two seniors, and special is a really good word to describe them,” Lewis said. “They are the type of kids that make going into the locker room after your last game very hard because of their example and what they do. Maybe it doesn't always show up on the stat sheet, but it is just everything you want in a player from being coachable to working hard, and doing all the little things from the rebounds to the passing.

“We are just really proud of those kids and proud of how they represented our program the way they did, and proud they were a part of us for four years. 

“For the season we had our ups and downs, but when we were at our best I think we competed with the best, and we had some big wins,” Lewis continued. “We had some games we really competed in and just fell a bit short, kind of like tonight. I was proud of the kids and the season that we had, and we'll see what happens next year.”

BOX SCORE
LCHS    11 12 17 13 — 53
FHHS    23 14 18 13 — 68

FEDERAL HOCKING (68) — B.Cottrill 5 (1) 3-9 16, L.Blower 0 (4) 2-2 14, V.Ballew 2 (0) 0-0 4, M.Nelson 0 (2) 0-0 6, T.Walker 2 (1) 1-2 8, R.Tabler 5 (1) 3-4 16, T.Snedden 2 (0) 0-0 4. TOTALS: 16 (9) 9-17 68. 

LYNCHBURG-CLAY (53) — L.Ferguson 6 (2) 1-1 19, S.Bell 3 (1) 0-0 9, J.Rockey 0 (1) 2-2 5, A.McLaughlin 0 (1) 0-0 3, M.McMullen 2 (0) 1-2 5, A.Carraher 0 (4) 0-0 12. TOTALS: 11 (9) 4-5 53.