Lady Tigers hang on to defeat Hillsboro

HILLSBORO — The McClain Lady Tigers are still in the battle to possibly get back to the top of the South Central Ohio League standings for this season. They currently sit in second place in the league, and on Saturday night, they battled to eventually defeat rival Hillsboro.

Playing on the road for the Lady Tigers, free throws at the end of the game became the cushion they needed as the Lady Indians wouldn’t go away on their home court, but it was McClain who finished with the higher point total, defeating Hillsboro, 52-48.

McClain junior Taylor Polley had a career-type game for the Lady Tigers, scoring a game-high 31 points, including seven 3-pointers, two two-point baskets and six free throws in the four-point road win by the Lady Tigers.

Leading the Lady Indians was senior Madison Snyder with 23 points in the loss. Snyder scored 12 of her 23 points in the first frame.

McClain has won the past 23 meetings against Hillsboro, with the streak for MHS beginning with a 45-39 win on Feb. 5, 2005, the second meeting of the 2004-05 season at MHS.

“We didn’t have a defensive answer for Madison Snyder in the first quarter,” MHS head coach Jarrod Haines said. “Credit to her, she took some good shots. In some instances, we were guarding her, but a lot of problems we were having were boxing out and rebounding, especially in the first half.

“Snyder is a good ball player, but luckily the answer we had for her was Taylor Polley. This was by far the best performance of her career. She shot the ball extremely well, especially her three. Malea shot the ball very well in the first half.”

HHS head coach JR Moberly spoke of his senior standout.

“Madison is such a warrior … night-in, night-out, she sees double teams every game, teams zoning us, and that’s the best way to take her out of games,” Moberly said. “Her game has evolved so much over the past couple years. She’s done everything she can to give us the opportunity to win games.

“Nobody ever plays harder than Madison. What a great kid.”

As for that first frame, McClain (10-2, 17-3) finished with a 13-12 lead after eight minutes ticked off the clock, but gaining that lead wasn’t easy as they had their troubles stopping Snyder, including her first two points that gave the Lady Indians the early, 2-0 advantage. Malea Montavon put MHS in front with a 3-pointer, then Polley followed with a 3-pointer of her own, and an 8-0 run was completed with two free throws from Montavon for an 8-2 Lady Tiger lead with 5:35 on the first-quarter clock.

Snyder responded with six straight points in a span of around one minute of game time with points in the paint tying the score at 8-8 with 4:15 left in the first frame. Polley pushed MHS back in front with two free throw conversions, only to see the score tied again at 10-10 with a jumper from Snyder.

Polley answered this next time with a 3-pointer for a 13-10 lead for MHS with 3:01, but with 13 seconds on the clock, Snyder scored her 12th point of the first quarter with another jumper to cut the MHS lead to one point.

Hillsboro (1-11, 3-17) opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer from Madi Marsh, but Polley was there with a trey of her own at the 6:38 mark of the quarter for a 16-15 Lady Tigers lead. Snyder tied the score with a shot from the free-throw line, and HHS took the lead with a Natalie Sullivan 3-pointer with 5:49 left in the first half.

“Defensively, we struggled a lot guarding the basketball,” Haines said. “We gave a lot of wide-open lanes to the basket, and we’ll work on that. It is nice to be in this situation at this point. With two big games coming up, we know what we need to work on. It shows the girls no matter the opponent, any given night we can be challenged, especially in this game with a county rival. We know they would come at us with everything they had, and they did.

“JR (Moberly) did an excellent job, and they (HHS) played extremely hard until the buzzer.”

Beth Montgomery rallied the Lady Tigers with four consecutive points in the paint for a one-point McClain lead with 4:43 on the clock, and later that lead went to three points following a jumper from Montavon to make the score 22-19. For the game, Montavon totaled nine points.

In all, MHS ended the first half with an 11-0 run, as Montgomery added two points with her post play, and Polley sank a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the 27-19 halftime lead. Montgomery finished with seven points.

MHS led 41-28 at the conclusion of the third frame, with Polley scoring 10 points in the frame, as MHS outscored HHS 14-9 in the quarter.

In the fourth, HHS pushed MHS to the limit, gradually chipping away at the lead of McClain. They began the fourth frame trailing by 13 points, but outscored McClain, 20-11.

“I was pleased with the effort … the kids played extremely hard,” Moberly said. “We’ve been playing better basketball as of late but have been playing pretty well at times since Christmas. We have a lot of young kids, but I think we are starting to play better. Hopefully we are moving in the right direction and have something to build for next year.”

HHS began the fourth with two points from Snyder, but Polley came back with a 3-pointer for the 44-30 lead. Kristin Jamieson came back with two points for the Lady Indians, jumpstarting six straight points by the Lady Indians as Snyder and Marsh joined in on the scoring, including Marsh adding her two points on a fast break with 3:57 left in the fourth.

Barton broke up the HHS scoring with a Lady Tigers free throw, only to see Snyder and Jamieson combine for four points, cutting the MHS lead to five points at 45-40 with 1:59 left in regulation. Polley came back with a free throw for McClain, but HHS was there again, this time with Jamieson with two free throws.

Forced to start fouling, the Lady Indians sent Polley to the free-throw line, and she made HHS pay with two conversions from the stripe. Snyder later was fouled by the visitors, and she made two free throws for the home team to make it a six-point differential.

Polley, who was fouled again, made another free throw, only to have Hillsboro’s Jamieson score two points on a layup with 19 seconds left in the final quarter. Jamieson finished with 11 points.

Montgomery went to the free-throw line for MHS and made one foul shot, and the final points of the game came from Marsh as eventually time ran out on the HHS rally effort.

For MHS, Mikenzie Coleman totaled two points in the win, while Barton finished with three. Final scoring for HHS included Sullivan with five points, Marsh with seven and Taylor Chaney with two.