GREENFIELD — The McClain Lady Tigers beat Miami Trace 54-49 Thursday night in the McClain gymnasium and moved into a two-way tie with the previously unbeaten Lady Panthers in the SCOL race.

“Both teams played very hard and that’s what good ballgames are all about with two teams playing for a league championship in a great atmosphere,” said McClain head coach Dennis Overstake.

Senior Kate Hammond became only the fourth girl at McClain to score 1,000 points when she hit a short jumper with 5:48 showing on the second quarter clock.

A packed house was on hand to see these two perennial powers battle for league supremacy and they were not disappointed as the two teams fought to the very end.

The Lady Tigers jumped out to an early 14-8 first quarter advantage as Hammond scored seven points to pace McClain while Andrea Strahler netted all eight points for the Lady Panthers in the period.

Hammond hit another jumper to begin the second stanza and McClain led 16-8 but Deidre McKay answered with a long three cutting the deficit to 16-11. Cortney Hyer got that three points back with a trifecta of her own pushing the lead back to 19-11.

On McClain’s next possession Hammond made history cutting through the lane to score her 11-point of the game but her 1,000th of her high school career and the game was stopped momentarily to honor her historic achievement. When play resumed Jenna Cobb would get back-to-back buckets for Miami Trace and pull the Lady Panthers back to within 4 points 21-17.

Hammond scored again for McClain followed by a jumper from Kasey Bryant for the Lady Panthers and the first half ended with the Lady Tigers leading 23-19. McClain’s Hammond led all scorers at the break with 13 points and Strahler had 10 for Miami Trace.

The Lady Tigers began the second half with a 10-4 run and extended their lead to 31-23 with just over four minutes remaining in the third period.

After Josey Hull scored for Miami Trace, the Lady Tigers would hit three straight 3’s with two coming from Hyer and increase the margin to 37-28 as the quarter was winding down. Hall scored again for Trace and Chrissy Cobb got a bucket right before the horn sounded to give the Lady Tigers a 39-30 lead.

In the fourth quarter, the Lady Panthers turned up the heat and went into their full court trapping defense forcing several McClain turnovers which helped them get back into the game. Jenna Cobb, Ashley Lawson, and Hull each scored for the Lady Panthers to begin the fourth quarter and the once nine point lead had dwindled to only two with still five minutes left in regulation.

After a McClain time out, Chrissy Cobb drilled a long trey followed by a conventional 3-point play by Hammond and the lead was back to eight points 45-37. Jenna Cobb came right back with a three for the Lady Panthers at the 3:45 mark trimming the lead to 45-40.

The Lady Tigers looked like they might put the game away late when their lead grew to 49-41 but Miami Trace would not roll-over and scored six straight points to pull back to within two 49-47 with 1:15 still remaining to be played.

The Lady Panthers would be forced to foul at the end and McClain converted 5 of 7 free-throws down the stretch and held on for the huge league win.

“Miami Trace really stepped up their defense in the second half causing us to turn the ball over and they got back to within two but we had a couple girls step up and hit some big threes in the fourth quarter,” Overstake said, “This game got us back into the race but we still have three tough league games left at London tomorrow night, back at Miami Trace next Thursday, and then finish up at home Saturday with Washington C.H.”

Andrea Strahler was injured while driving to the basket and had to go to the bench with the game still very much in the balance.

“When Andrea (Strahler) who had played very well in the first half and is our tallest player got injured we just didn’t have the experience in there and it obviously hurt us down the stretch,” said Miami Trace Coach James Stutzman.

“McClain’s defense definitely created some problems for us and forced us into several turnovers and likewise I think we forced a few on them but not enough to overcome the deficit.”

Both teams will have little time to dwell on this game because they hook up in a re-match next Thursday night February 4th at the Panther pit in a game that will probably decide the league championship.

McClain improves to 12-2 over-all 8-1 S.C.O.L. and Miami Trace falls to 14-1 on the season 9-1 S.C.O.L.

Score by quarter-McClain-14, 9, 16, 15, 54

Miami Trace-8, 11, 11, 19, 49

Individual Scoring-McClain

Chrissy Cobb 3, 3, 10, Megan Saylor 4, 1, 9, Cortney Hyer 3, 0, 9, Kate Hammond 8, 1, 18, Shelby Buck 1, 2, 5, Jenna Perie 1, 1, 3, Totals 20, 8, 54. 3-Point Goals-Cobb 1, Hyer 3, Hammond 1, Buck 1.

Miami Trace-Ashley Lawson 1, 2, 4, Kasey Bryant 1, 0, 2, Josey Hull 3, 0, 7, Deidre McKay 1, 0, 3, Jenna Cobb 6, 1, 15, Andrea Strahler 5, 0, 10, Kristen Reisinger 3, 2, 8, Totals 20, 5 49. 3-Point Goals-Hull 1, Cobb 2, and McKay with 1.

McClain J.V. girls won 39-38, leading scorers for McClain were Taylor Faulconer with 11 points, Sammy Rooks with eight and Sasha Lawwell with 10.

Leading scorers for Miami Trace (9-6, 6-4) were Deidre McKay with 20 points and Taylor Smith with eight points.

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