Lady Tigers defeat rival Lady Indians on senior day
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
GREENFIELD — Senior day was full of celebration for the McClain Lady Tigers as they defeated rival Hillsboro at McClain Gym by a 67-35 score, with both teams wrapping up their South Central Ohio League and regular season schedules.
McClain and Hillsboro played very close in the first quarter with the Lady Tigers leading 10-7 over their Highland County rival at the conclusion of the first quarter, but by the time halftime rolled around, the host Lady Tigers led 26-11.
The opening quarter was all Taylor Polley for the Lady Tigers (8-6, 12-10) in the scoring column, with the senior scoring 10 points in the opening frame, including a 3-pointer at the 6:03 mark and at the 2:12 mark of the first frame. Hillsboro made it a three-point differential at the end of the first quarter with a 3-pointer by Madi Marsh.
Polley finished the game with 22 points. Also for the Lady Tigers, Malea Montavon had a double-double with 17 points and 16 rebounds. Fellow senior Beth Montgomery had nine points and nine rebounds in the SCOL win, and the fourth MHS senior, Lexie Barton, totaled 11 points.
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“That is about the experience for those seniors,” MHS head coach Jarrod Haines said. “I told the kids after the game they’ll remember this forever, being the last time you play on your home court. Go out there and make memories, and I think they did a pretty good job of that.’’
“Taylor Polley in the first quarter played excellent for us. We’ve missed her this season. She’s battled injury and struggled at times to get back with it, but she had a great game today as she distributed the basketball and scored early points for us. She means so much to our program and what we try to do, so it was great to see her have such a great day.
“We also had Malea with a double-double, plus Beth and Lexie had great games, too. All four of them play well and do something different for us. They left it all on the floor today and played about as good as they could have.”
As for the second quarter, MHS seniors Barton, Montavon and Polley opened the frame with a 6-0 run to increase their lead to 18-7 with 4:06 left in the opening half. HHS answered with two points by Sydney Bobbitt, but answering those points was Polley with her third 3-pointer of the first half, giving McClain a 21-9 advantage.
The remainder of the second frame included two free throws by Hillsboro’s Kaley Burns, but MHS ended the first frame with a layup by Polley off a pass from Barton, followed by Polley making a behind-the-back pass around a Hillsboro defender, on a fast break, to Maddy Stegbauer, who scored two points. MHS ended the frame with a free throw from Makenzie Montavon for the 15-point advantage after two frames.
In the second half, the Lady Tigers scored a combined 41 points, including 21 points in the third and 20 points in the fourth. Malea Montavon scored eight of the 20 third-quarter points for MHS by making two 3-pointers and a jumper. The senior Montavon opened the third with a 3-pointer, only to see that equaled by Lana Grover for the Lady Indians.
MHS had a plan to answer that too, as post player and senior Beth Montgomery knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the key, making the score 32-14 with 7:15 left in the third.
Also scoring points for the Lady Tigers in the third were Polley and Barton. HHS scored nine points in the third with Grover, Marsh, Taylor Chaney and Burns contributing to the scoring. Marsh led the Lady Indians with seven points.
In the fourth, McClain had the game well in hand, finishing with seven players adding points in the final eight minutes. Adding to the lead were Montgomery, Malea Montavon (a 3-pointer), Polley, Barton, Bryn Karnes, Hunter Scott and Makenzie Montavon.
HHS (2-12, 4-18) had fourth-quarter scoring from Kayden Watson, Bobbitt, Karleigh Hopkins, Riley Moberly and Chaney, with Moberly sinking a 3-pointer.
For the game, HHS was 8-of-12 from the free-throw line, while MHS went 6-of-19. MHS also finished the game with seven 3-pointers, while HHS totaled three treys. Other final scoring for the Lady Indians included Karleigh Hopkins and Kaley Burns with six points each.
“I told the girls at halftime if they could put the ball in the basket, it would have been a tied game,” HHS head coach JR Moberly said. “I didn’t think we did too bad on defense in the first half, but our shooting … we shot 9-of-43 from the field, and that won’t win you a lot of ball games. I thought we did a lot of nice things in the first half, but we just couldn’t score when we were right there around the basket. We have to work a lot on our form, but I told the kids afterwards, they did what they had to do to be in the game early on, with the exception of making those shots.”
Moberly talked about his team and how they played in the second half.
“We don’t like contact, and we struggle with it,” he said. “We can’t fix that now, but we can fix it in a few weeks when we start getting into the weight room, and that is the only way to fix that. In order to rebound the basketball, we are going to have to want to find that contact, seek that out and go find the basketball, and we’ve struggled to do that all year.”
Next is the Division II SE District Sectional Round of the postseason tournament, as the Hillsboro Lady Indians play on Monday, Feb. 13 against Logan Elm at Adena High School at 7 p.m. in a sectional quarterfinal game.
“We talked about wrapping up the first season and taking things we’ve learned into the postseason,” Moberly said. “We’ve learned over the course of the season we have to be stronger … too many teams are stronger than us. We have to shoot the basketball better, and we have to make more of a commitment of playing together. They came up with those things, and they understand that. We’ll take those lessons and put them on the back burner and progress into the offseason.”
The MHS Lady Tigers will play the Circleville Lady Tigers on Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. at Adena High School in a sectional semifinal game.
“We played them already this season, and they kind of got the best of us before Christmas, but I feel we are a different team now,” Haines said. “It doesn’t really matter, because we still have to show up, play hard and get after it. There were times in that first game against (Circleville) where we didn’t do what we needed to do. Maybe it was a good thing for us … we just have to regain focus, and they are a very good No. 4 seed. It is a good matchup for us, but we just have to make make shots.”
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In a game on Saturday, Feb. 4, the Hillsboro Lady Indians fell to the Chillicothe Lady Cavaliers by a 57-31 score at Chillicothe High School.
The Lady Indians were led in scoring by Taylor Chaney with 10 points, followed by Lana Grover with nine. Also for the Lady Indians, Madi Marsh scored four points.
Natalie Sullivan, Sydney Bobbitt and Kaley Burns each scored two points, while Karleigh Hopkins and Riley Moberly each finished with one point.
At the half, HHS trailed Chillicothe, 35-14. For the game, HHS was 5-of-9 from the free-throw line, while also making two 3-pointers (Grover, Marsh).
McClain and Hillsboro played very close in the first quarter with the Lady Tigers leading 10-7 over their Highland County rival at the conclusion of the first quarter, but by the time halftime rolled around, the host Lady Tigers led 26-11.
The opening quarter was all Taylor Polley for the Lady Tigers (8-6, 12-10) in the scoring column, with the senior scoring 10 points in the opening frame, including a 3-pointer at the 6:03 mark and at the 2:12 mark of the first frame. Hillsboro made it a three-point differential at the end of the first quarter with a 3-pointer by Madi Marsh.
Polley finished the game with 22 points. Also for the Lady Tigers, Malea Montavon had a double-double with 17 points and 16 rebounds. Fellow senior Beth Montgomery had nine points and nine rebounds in the SCOL win, and the fourth MHS senior, Lexie Barton, totaled 11 points.
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“That is about the experience for those seniors,” MHS head coach Jarrod Haines said. “I told the kids after the game they’ll remember this forever, being the last time you play on your home court. Go out there and make memories, and I think they did a pretty good job of that.’’
“Taylor Polley in the first quarter played excellent for us. We’ve missed her this season. She’s battled injury and struggled at times to get back with it, but she had a great game today as she distributed the basketball and scored early points for us. She means so much to our program and what we try to do, so it was great to see her have such a great day.
“We also had Malea with a double-double, plus Beth and Lexie had great games, too. All four of them play well and do something different for us. They left it all on the floor today and played about as good as they could have.”
As for the second quarter, MHS seniors Barton, Montavon and Polley opened the frame with a 6-0 run to increase their lead to 18-7 with 4:06 left in the opening half. HHS answered with two points by Sydney Bobbitt, but answering those points was Polley with her third 3-pointer of the first half, giving McClain a 21-9 advantage.
The remainder of the second frame included two free throws by Hillsboro’s Kaley Burns, but MHS ended the first frame with a layup by Polley off a pass from Barton, followed by Polley making a behind-the-back pass around a Hillsboro defender, on a fast break, to Maddy Stegbauer, who scored two points. MHS ended the frame with a free throw from Makenzie Montavon for the 15-point advantage after two frames.
In the second half, the Lady Tigers scored a combined 41 points, including 21 points in the third and 20 points in the fourth. Malea Montavon scored eight of the 20 third-quarter points for MHS by making two 3-pointers and a jumper. The senior Montavon opened the third with a 3-pointer, only to see that equaled by Lana Grover for the Lady Indians.
MHS had a plan to answer that too, as post player and senior Beth Montgomery knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the key, making the score 32-14 with 7:15 left in the third.
Also scoring points for the Lady Tigers in the third were Polley and Barton. HHS scored nine points in the third with Grover, Marsh, Taylor Chaney and Burns contributing to the scoring. Marsh led the Lady Indians with seven points.
In the fourth, McClain had the game well in hand, finishing with seven players adding points in the final eight minutes. Adding to the lead were Montgomery, Malea Montavon (a 3-pointer), Polley, Barton, Bryn Karnes, Hunter Scott and Makenzie Montavon.
HHS (2-12, 4-18) had fourth-quarter scoring from Kayden Watson, Bobbitt, Karleigh Hopkins, Riley Moberly and Chaney, with Moberly sinking a 3-pointer.
For the game, HHS was 8-of-12 from the free-throw line, while MHS went 6-of-19. MHS also finished the game with seven 3-pointers, while HHS totaled three treys. Other final scoring for the Lady Indians included Karleigh Hopkins and Kaley Burns with six points each.
“I told the girls at halftime if they could put the ball in the basket, it would have been a tied game,” HHS head coach JR Moberly said. “I didn’t think we did too bad on defense in the first half, but our shooting … we shot 9-of-43 from the field, and that won’t win you a lot of ball games. I thought we did a lot of nice things in the first half, but we just couldn’t score when we were right there around the basket. We have to work a lot on our form, but I told the kids afterwards, they did what they had to do to be in the game early on, with the exception of making those shots.”
Moberly talked about his team and how they played in the second half.
“We don’t like contact, and we struggle with it,” he said. “We can’t fix that now, but we can fix it in a few weeks when we start getting into the weight room, and that is the only way to fix that. In order to rebound the basketball, we are going to have to want to find that contact, seek that out and go find the basketball, and we’ve struggled to do that all year.”
Next is the Division II SE District Sectional Round of the postseason tournament, as the Hillsboro Lady Indians play on Monday, Feb. 13 against Logan Elm at Adena High School at 7 p.m. in a sectional quarterfinal game.
“We talked about wrapping up the first season and taking things we’ve learned into the postseason,” Moberly said. “We’ve learned over the course of the season we have to be stronger … too many teams are stronger than us. We have to shoot the basketball better, and we have to make more of a commitment of playing together. They came up with those things, and they understand that. We’ll take those lessons and put them on the back burner and progress into the offseason.”
The MHS Lady Tigers will play the Circleville Lady Tigers on Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. at Adena High School in a sectional semifinal game.
“We played them already this season, and they kind of got the best of us before Christmas, but I feel we are a different team now,” Haines said. “It doesn’t really matter, because we still have to show up, play hard and get after it. There were times in that first game against (Circleville) where we didn’t do what we needed to do. Maybe it was a good thing for us … we just have to regain focus, and they are a very good No. 4 seed. It is a good matchup for us, but we just have to make make shots.”
- - - -
In a game on Saturday, Feb. 4, the Hillsboro Lady Indians fell to the Chillicothe Lady Cavaliers by a 57-31 score at Chillicothe High School.
The Lady Indians were led in scoring by Taylor Chaney with 10 points, followed by Lana Grover with nine. Also for the Lady Indians, Madi Marsh scored four points.
Natalie Sullivan, Sydney Bobbitt and Kaley Burns each scored two points, while Karleigh Hopkins and Riley Moberly each finished with one point.
At the half, HHS trailed Chillicothe, 35-14. For the game, HHS was 5-of-9 from the free-throw line, while also making two 3-pointers (Grover, Marsh).