Court House, Trace top league standings

(Continued from last week.)

In another SCOL battle, McClain won a nail-biter over Wilmington, 53-47, in overtime in late December 1991.

The Hurricane led 45-37 with a little over five minutes remaining in the game, but they didn’t score another point in regulation. The Tigers used aggressive ball-hawking defense to get back into the game.

Sophomore Richie Highley banked in an off-balance shot with a little over a minute remaining to tie the score at 45-all. The purple-and-gold blew several opportunities to win the game in regulation, mainly at the free-throw line.

For the entire game, they hit only 10-of-37, a really dismal performance. As it was, they managed to contain the visitors and ice the six-point SCOL win.

Miami Trace got a scare at East Clinton on Tuesday, Jan. 7. The Astros, who sported a 1-6 record and pushed the Panthers to the wall, leading the Fayette County squad 26-25 at halftime.

Kirk Hardman’s team shot only 39 percent from the field and hit only 10-of-26 free-throw attempts. The visitors’ defense stiffened up in the second half, however, enabling them to take a hard-fought 54-45 win.

On Friday night, Washington traveled to Wilmington, while the Hillsboro Indians challenged the Panthers at Miami Trace. McClain was idle on Friday but hosted Adena on Saturday.

Miami Trace jumped on Hillsboro early and quickly held a 13-2 lead at the midway point of the first quarter. The Indians stayed with their opponents after that but were never able to make up the deficit. The Panthers came out on top by a 64-47 score. This was Trace’s seventh consecutive win. Jason King led Trace with 22 points. Nathan Walker’s 12 was Hillsboro’s best.

Washington racked up 100 points against Wilmington’s defense and hammered the ’Cane, 100-83. The Blue Lions had four men in double figures, led by Pittser’s 33, including four 3-pointers in the second quarter. Wilmington center Casy Chroust was unstoppable, piling up 39 Hurricane points. Chroust, however, did not get enough help from his teammates.

In Greenfield, McClain roughed up Adena, 54-31. WCH thumped visiting Logan Elm Saturday night on the Lion home court by a lopsided count of 74-49.

At the approximate midway point in the season, the league standings were:
Washington 9-1, 3-0
Miami Trace 8-2, 3-1
Hillsboro 4-5, 1-2
McClain 3-6, 1-2
Wilmington 3-7, 1-3

On Friday, Jan. 17, Miami Trace met Washington on the WCH court, and McClain played at Hillsboro.

Wilmington had the bye.

Washington jumped on Trace early and raced to a 17-8 first-quarter lead.

The visitors played fairly even with the Lions for the remainder of the game but were never able to make up the deficit.

Washington won 71-55.

Both teams featured balanced scoring, and neither had a really big scorer in this game.

At Hillsboro, McClain’s Rob Snavely’s clutch free-throw shooting in the final minute of play enabled the Tigers to hold off a late Hillsboro charge and win the game, 50-45.

Snavely hit five of six free throws in the final minute of play.

Nathan Walker’s 12 points led the Indians in a losing cause. Tim Parry added nine. Jimmy Vanzant led the Tigers with 18 markers, but Snavely and Eric Spangler contributed 11 each.

Sophomore McClain forward Richie Highley (the team’s second-leading scorer) was lost to the McClain team for the remainder of the season when he broke a wrist in the Adena game, a week earlier.

Tuesday, Jan. 20 saw the Tigers wallop the Vinton County Vikings, 70-49, on the McClain court. The outcome was really never in doubt, but in the very first quarter, the purple-and-gold lost junior guard Bobby Williams, who reinjured a knee that was operated on two years earlier following a football injury.

Nobody knew how long Williams would be out, but he was the second Tiger to go down in the past eight days.

At this point in the season, McClain stood 2-2 in the SCOL and 5-6 overall.

Western Brown downed Hillsboro, 61-58, the same evening, in Mt. Orab, and Miami Trace, who had a tough game with East Clinton earlier in the season, trounced the Astros, 70-49 on the Trace floor.

On Friday, Jan. 24, McClain hosted the Blue Lions of Washington C.H., Wilmington traveled to Miami Trace while Hillsboro and Dayton Stebbins tangled in Hillsboro.

Washington was just too tough for a weakened Tiger five. The Lions took the SCOL win, 60-39.

Wilmington played Miami Trace tough, but Terrell Baker burned the ’Cane with 34 points, which led to a 65-54 Panther win.

With 7:02 remaining in the game, the score was tied 45-45. In the final seven minutes, the Panthers trapped, and the Hurricane came unglued for a brief period, which resulted in the Trace victory.

At Hillsboro, in a hotly contested game, the Indians edged Dayton Stebbins, 57-55.

(Continued next week.)

Bob Patton is a Highland County sports historian and a contributing writer to The Highland County Press.