Lady Tigers fall to Lady Cavs; tied for 1st in SCOL

GREENFIELD - The top of the South Central Ohio League standings now has two teams vying for the No. 1 spot with just four games remaining.

There was a lot on the line Saturday between the McClain Lady Tigers and the visiting Chillicothe Lady Cavaliers. CHS gained the season sweep and with a 49-44 win over MHS forced a tie atop the SCOL standings.

In fact, the Lady Tigers and Lady Cavs lead the Clinton-Massie Lady Falcons by one game in the standings, so with just four games left, there is still a lot to play for between the three schools.

MHS and CHS are 8-2 in the league, while CM moved to 7-3 following their overtime win against Hillsboro on Saturday. MHS is looking for their first SCOL title since 1991 and their first girls conference championship since 2003, when the Lady Tigers were in the Southern Buckeye Athletic & Academic Conference.

The SCOL battle also saw two milestones take place with McClain's Shania Massie becoming the Lady Tigers' second-place all-time leading scorer, passing Audra (Cook) Branham in the rankings. The all-time leading scorer in the girls basketball program is Sarah Hull.

Milestone No. 2 in the game was Chillicothe's Bri Dawes scoring her 1,000th career point in the fourth quarter.

As for Saturday, the Lady Tigers played a very tough first frame, but for the next three quarters had trouble scoring points in the paint, and their rebounding game wasn't up to their usual standards.

The Lady Cavaliers capitalized on their second- and third-chance opportunities to eventually gain the win.

"Shania was rolling early, and after that we just stood and watched her," MHS head coach Jarrod Haines said. "We didn't get much movement offensively, and we forced a lot of things. Defensively, as a team, we didn't pick up assignments.

"We emphasized how important the first quarter and the first half was, because when we went there, we didn't play very well, and this was the opposite in we didn't finish strong here, but we did there, but credit Chillicothe ... they played hard, and their defense bothered us. We have to get back at it and get better."

In the first frame, it looked as if the Lady Tigers were going to control the pace of the game after the score was tied at 6-6 around the halfway point of the quarter.
With the score all tied at six, MHS went on a 12-6 run (including tying the score at six) to end the first with Massie scoring nine of the 12 points in the run, including sinking a 3-pointer following an inbounds pass to Beth Montgomery, who passed it right back to Massie for three points and a 16-8 lead.

The other three points of the run were by Montgomery as the post player converted a three-point play with 3:21 left in the first.

With Chillicothe having two starters in foul trouble, the Lady Cavaliers had trouble taking advantage of the situation, finishing the first half with a 21-19 lead.

The second quarter for MHS began with three straight points by Taylor Polley and Massie to push their lead to 19-10, but the Lady Cavs answered with a 9-2 run in the final 5:54 of the second to make it a two-point game.

"The games we have lost this year, we just didn't watch people, whether it be our post players, our guards, we didn't get much movement and we didn't reverse the ball much," Haines said. "They (CHS) did a good job and made us take a lot of early shots."

CHS took the lead following the completion of the third by outscoring the hosts 11-7 to take a 30-26 lead.

Chillicothe's Shay Lett opened the third with a 3-pointer, and after a free-throw by Massie, Osh Brown put the Lady Cavaliers ahead 24-22. Montgomery tied the score at 24, but the Lady Cavs ran away with the remainder of the quarter, outscoring MHS, 6-2, including five straight points by Lett.

MHS never regained possession of the lead in the fourth, but with 4:03 left in the quarter, Massie became second place in MHS girls basketball scoring all-time with points in the paint.

Dawes earned her 1,000-point milestone with 36 seconds remaining in regulation.

Polley sank a 3-pointer for MHS with 10.5 left to get MHS within three points of tying the score, but there wasn't enough time left for MHS to get any closer.

"We got them in trouble in the second quarter with them in foul trouble, and we didn't take advantage of it," Haines said. "It came back to bite us."

MHS will host Zane Trace on Monday in non-league play and Washington on Wednesday in SCOL action.