By The Numbers: Eastern Brown should be state-ranked; LC seniors have a history of success; and more

The state girls basketball poll have had one glaring omission this season in their Division III rankings, and that is the absence of the Eastern Brown Lady Warriors from the Associated Press this season.

The general thought should be if a poll is said to be covering the entire state of Division III girls basketball, then somehow and some way, the Lady Warriors need to be in the state rankings. This team deserved more respect in the state polls than what they received all season, as the final AP poll was released on Tuesday, though it is an uncertainty how many voters come from the Southeast District.

They are undefeated champions of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference, finishing with a perfect 13-0 record to have not only the Division I conference title, but the best overall record in the SHAC. To go with that, the Eastern Brown Lady Warriors have also built an overall record of 21-1, with two of their wins coming against a 19-win Lynchburg-Clay team that is also one of the better teams in girls basketball, and a program that won a district championship last season. 

Eastern’s lone loss came against Logan on Dec. 22 by just six points by a 57-51 score. Also with the Lady Warriors, they have two players in junior Allison Day and sophomore Alexa Pennington, who both will play at the collegiate level in the future. 

Day this season is averaging a double-double with 16.1 points per game and 10.8 rebounds per game. She’s also averaging 3.7 assists per game and 3.5 steals per game.

Pennington is almost averaging a double-double with 10.5 ppg and 7.3 rpg, and with those numbers, she had 2.9 assists per game and 1.2 steals per game. By the way, these two players just don’t score all their points in the paint; rather, they are solid shooters away from the hoop as well.

Mikayla Faris is also averaging 10 ppg for EB, along with 5.9 rpg and 2.2 apg. As a team, the Lady Warriors are averaging 41.5 rebounds per game, compared to their opponents who have 24.4 rpg against them.

Also, when you look at Eastern’s overall team stats, here is the comparison, with EB listed first, followed by their opponents for the season:

• Points Per Game: EB — 61.4, Opp. — 36.8 (+24.6).

• Rebounds Per Game: EB — 41.5, Opp. — 24.4 (+17.1).

Other team stats:

• Steals Per Game: EB — 12.3 (Morgan Reynolds leads with 3.7 spg.)

The Lady Warriors have a No. 1 seed in the Division III bracket they are a part of and will play No. 8 Rock Hill on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 1 p.m. at Valley High School.

Though the Lady Warriors were never ranked in the state at any point this season, they played extremely well during the regular season. Their talent prevailed through the first 22 games of the season, and it will be exciting for all southern Ohio basketball fans to see how they advance in the tournament, hopefully showing those with a vote they deserved to be somewhere in the state rankings. (I unfortunately don’t get a vote in any state poll.)

• Lynchburg-Clay Girls Basketball seniors

The regular season for Lynchburg-Clay seniors Lexi Waits, McKayla Binkley and Hannah Binkley ended at their home court last Thursday night, wrapping up the Lady Mustangs’ regular season at 19-3 overall and gaining 10 wins in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference.

The 80-23 SHAC win over Manchester was the 74th win in the four-year varsity careers of the senior trio. They began their varsity basketball careers at the start of the 2013-14 basketball season. In that time frame, the seniors of LC have won no less than 15 games in any season, with the most coming last year when they were a part of a team that qualified for the Sweet 16 (Division III Regional Semifinals) and had a 24-2 overall record.

This season, with the Lady Mustangs currently at 19-3 overall, the trio has combined for 834 points with Waits scoring 124 points in 21 games played, followed by Hannah with 332 points in 21 games and McKayla scoring 378 points in 22 games played.

Waits brings a lot to the Lady Mustangs with her all-out aggressive style of play, as she’s played like that since day one at the varsity level. The Binkleys can play aggressive as well, but they also have a smooth style to their overall game with their shooting abilities and can take it to the hoop when needed, as the twins are each 1,000-point scorers for their four-year varsity careers.

Seeing this “triple threat” of seniors for the Lady Mustangs begin their final tournament is a bit bittersweet because of all they’ve brought to the Lynchburg-Clay basketball program, but it should also be exciting as their play is sure to be at a high level this time of year where anything is able to occur once tournament games begin.

• More stats for girls basketball

- One player who has to be mentioned for Lynchburg-Clay this time of the season is sophomore guard Peyton Scott. She is one of the top players in the Southeast District and has possibly the best shooting form of any girls basketball player I’ve covered over the past 10 seasons. She’s averaging 20.4 points per game (22 games), along with nearly 8.0 rebounds per game. For the season, the sophomore has scored 449 points, and for her career, she’s scored over 800.

- There is also Fairfield junior guard Grace Shope, who not only accomplished the 1,000-point scoring mark for her career, she’s also nearing the FHS girls basketball all-time scoring mark which stands at 1,199 points, currently held by former All-Ohio selection Heather Cox. Shope this season has scored 410 points in 23 games, averaging 17.8 ppg including her 15 points in the sectional final on Thursday night vs. Clay.  

- For the regular season, Highland County had a total of seven girls basketball players average higher than 10 ppg this season. Those players are:

1. Peyton Scott (Lynchburg-Clay)
20.4 – 449 (22 games)

2. Grace Shope (Fairfield)
18 – 395 (22 games)

3. McKayla Binkley (Lynchburg-Clay)
17.2 – 378 (22 games)

4. Hannah Binkley (Lynchburg-Clay)
15.8 – 332 (21 games)

5. Malea Montavon (McClain)
11.9 – 249 (21 games)

6. Taylor Polley (McClain)
11.4 – 193 (17 games)

7. Maggie Carr (Whiteoak)
11 – 243 (22 games)

Four of the five Highland County schools are represented in the above scoring numbers. Scoring isn’t the end all, be all when it comes to basketball, but other stats for all five schools were not available.

Some other stats found for Highland County girls basketball included:

- Both McKayla Binkley and Peyton Scott each led the Lady Mustangs with 3.2 offensive rebounds per game, while Binkley led LC with 6.4 defensive rebounds per game this season (through the first 20 games).

- For the McClain Lady Tigers, the first 21 games of the season saw senior Beth Montgomery lead the team with 135 rebounds, an average of 6.4 rpg. Malea Montavon shot nearly 50 percent from the field at two-point range (49.2 percent). Montgomery and Montavon also collected a combined 81 offensive rebounds (Montgomery: 42, Montavon: 39).

- In her 17 regular season games of the season, Polley not only averaged 11.4 ppg., but in the first 16 games of her season, she also had a 3.4 assists per game average and 2.4 steals per game. She’s also joined the 1,000-point club, earning that honor in the Division II Sectional Semifinals vs. Circleville, Wednesday night at Adena High School.

- As for 1,000-point club, this season Highland County has had three players join the ranks in McKayla Binkley (LC), Grace Shope (FHS) and Taylor Polley (MHS).

- The Montavon sisters each have rebounded well this season. Malea Montavon averaged 5.0 rpg. (20 games), and sophomore Makenzie Montavon had 4.8 rpg. (19 games).

- For the Hillsboro Lady Indians, during the regular season, their leading scorer was Natalie Sullivan. The junior averaged 6.4 ppg. in 17 games played, 10th in scoring for Highland County girls basketball.

- To see the Top 20 of Highland County girls basketball scoring for the 2016-17 regular season, click here.