Lady Tigers fall to Unioto in sectionals

The No. 13 seeded McClain Lady Tigers saw their season come to an end Thursday night at Zane Trace High School after a 67-27 loss to the No. 4 seeded Unioto Lady Shermans in the Division II sectional finals.

Unioto came into the contest with a strong résumé that included a gold basketball for going undefeated in the talented Scioto Valley Conference and are considered one of the best teams in the district.

The game started well for McClain when they jumped out to an early 7-4 advantage after baskets by seniors Lily Barnes and Haylee Havens and a long three by freshman Paisley Pryor. But the game quickly changed late in the opening quarter and the beginning of the second when the Lady Shermans’ full-court pressure defense seemed to wear down McClain, causing numerous turnovers that resulted in easy layups for UHS.

“I think my girls came out early with a lot of energy and played well taking that 7-4 lead, and it really wasn’t until the second quarter that Unioto was able to pull away due to some turnovers from their full-court pressure,” McClain head coach Shania Massie said. “Unioto is a really good team that got a gold ball for a reason, and they probably will go very far in the tournament, but I’m still proud of how hard all my girls played and never quit no matter what the score was.”

Unioto finished the first period on a 13-2 run and grabbed a 17-9 lead heading to the second.

The second quarter was basically the game-deciding frame when McClain was outscored 19-6 by the Lady Shermans and trailed 36-15 at the half. The only players to score points in the second period were Barnes, Havens and Pryor, all of whom had just one bucket each.

Things didn’t get any better over the final two quarters for the Lady Tigers, and the constant full-court pressure by Unioto with most of their starters still in the game led to the lopsided score at the end.

The Lady Shermans won the third period 19-8 with McClain’s points coming from Pryor, who hit two jumpers, and single baskets by Brenna Wright and Lindsey Hutchinson. Unioto also took the fourth quarter by a 12-4 count with Pryor scoring all four points for McClain, giving her a team-high 15 for the game.

“Katie Cook, who didn’t get a lot of minutes during the regular season came into the game in the first half and did a great job defensively and kind of got into the head of the girl she was guarding,” Massie said. “Katie is really tough and is a hustle-type player who was diving all over the floor for loose balls.

“I can’t say enough about our four seniors Haylee Havens, Lily Barnes, Luca Matesic and Kaitlyn Jett.  They have meant so much to our program and our younger players and have been great role models and teammates. I wish them all the best of luck after high school.”

“I’m excited for the girls we have coming back,” Massie continued. “We’ve got a solid group of younger players coming up that should give us a chance to be really good next year.”

McClain finishes the regular season with a very respectable 12-11 overall mark and a second-place finish in the Frontier Athletic Conference. 

Freshman point guard Paisley Pryor led McClain with a team-high 15 points and was the only Lady Tigers to reach double figures. Rounding out the scoring for McClain was Haylee Havens 4, Lily Barnes 4, Brenna Wright 2 and Lindsey Hutchinson 2.

Sophomore Milee Smith led Unioto with a game-high 19 points, followed by Amaris Betts and Magnolia Holbert, who scored 13 points each.

 
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