Lady Mustangs defeat rival Hillsboro

DODSONVILLE — The Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs continue to gain victories, this newest one on Monday night as they defeated Highland County foe Hillsboro, 72-31 as freshman Peyton Scott and junior Hannah Binkley each scored over 20 points in the non-conference victory.

For the Lady Mustangs, who improve to 5-0 overall, they saw Scott lead with 29 points as she also tallied a double-double with 10 rebounds. The freshman nearly had a triple-double, tallying eight assists and even five steals in just her fifth varsity game.

Also for LC (5-0), Binkley totaled 25 points in the victory, making five 3-pointers in the win, while senior teammate Ali Little finished with eight points and a team-high 15 rebounds.

“We played good defense in the first half, came back out and wanted to really focus on that in the second half,” LC head coach Whitney Lewis said. “We wanted to hold them defensively in the third quarter, and I thought we did that.

“In the fourth quarter, we let Snyder go crazy on us. She’s a good player, and she’s going to do that to teams. Overall, though, I thought we played a really good defensive game and held them where we needed to.”

The Lady Indians (1-6) were led in scoring by senior Madison Snyder with 17 points.

“We’ve got to do some things to try to figure out how to get Madison the ball when she doesn’t have three people guarding her,” HHS head coach JR Moberly said.

With the two teams being separated by 11 miles of Route 50, the two Highland County counterparts battled tough through the first part of the first quarter, with Scott starting the game with her first 3-pointer of the contest 21 seconds into the first quarter, but that was answered with two free throws from Snyder. Scott came back with two more points from the free-throw line, only to see Snyder score points in the paint for a 5-4 score.

At the 4:11 mark, Little connected with a reverse layup, beginning a run of 11 consecutive points by the Lady Mustangs, with Binkley scoring seven straight points in a span of 34 seconds to put LC ahead 14-4 with 3:22 left in the opening quarter. Snyder scored the final points of the quarter with two points at the 2:30 mark of the first frame.

“Hannah shot the ball well for us,” Lewis said. “This was a really physical game, and our bigs battled outside and were able to finish shots as well.”

LC opened the second quarter with seven straight points, with Scott responsible for five of those points, while Binkley scored two points following a steal by Little.

“Peyton came out and was ready to go,” Lewis said. “The first quarter was a little slow for us, but she started shooting the ball really well in the second quarter and third quarter and got on a roll. When she gets hot, she’s not going to miss much.”

The drive of points by LC was halted by points in the paint by Taylor Chaney. LC eventually led by a 28-12 score at the halftime break, outscoring the Lady Indians, 14-6 in the quarter.

“Most of the night, we played pretty hard,” Moberly said. “We had a couple lapses, which we talked about in timeouts and quarter breaks. We have to play hard as we try to make up for our inexperience. They’re good about that, and they’ll bounce back. We’ll go to practice tomorrow and get ready for Miami Trace on Wednesday.”

Lynchburg-Clay then dominated the third quarter by a 25-4 differential, and in the fourth, LC outscored the Lady Indians, 19-14.

Also scoring for Hillsboro was Madi Marsh with four points, while Natalie Sullivan, Hanna Breeden Riley Moberly, Lilly McCleese and Chaney each finished with two points. Sydney Bobbitt scored one point, making a free throw in the fourth quarter.

For the Lady Mustangs, also reaching the scoring column was Marissa Mitchell with four points, while teammates Emily Roush, Lexi Waits and Vanessa Thiel each scored two points.

LC was 10-of-13 from the free-throw line, and they totaled eight 3-pointers in the win, while the Lady Indians went 5-of-11 from the free-throw line.

Moberly spoke about having a young team playing so many games early in the season.

“We played Saturday, Monday, Wednesday,” Moberly said. “We haven’t had any practices at all because of our schedules, so we haven’t had time to make any adjustments. Things will slow down soon, and we’ll have a chance to work on some things.

“The way the schedule has turned out has been tough on us, but that’s the way it works out sometimes. You get your games in when you can get them in, and that’s how it fell out this year. We would surely have liked to have played a couple early and then worked on some things and backloaded it, but it just is what it is. Mr. Dietrick (HHS athletic director) has done a great job with our schedule, but it is just unfortunate that it has worked out this year with this young group. Last year, this schedule would have worked out better with the veteran team we had.”

HHS will be back on the court on Wednesday when they host Miami Trace in South Central Ohio League play. LC will play again on Thursday when they host West Union in Southern Hills Athletic Conference action.