GREENFIELD — A stalled offense and struggles at the free throw line doomed East Clinton Wednesday in a 33-32 loss to McClain at the MHS gym.
The South Central Ohio League defeat leaves the Lady Astros with a 1-5 overall record and a 0-4 mark in league play.
“We’re right there, we just have to finish,” EC coach Steven Gerber said.
Mackenzie Campbell was the lone Lady Astro to reach double figures with 10 points.
East Clinton scored just three points — a Lacey Peterman three-pointer — in the final quarter. Also, EC was just 3 of 10 from the free throw line.
“Our kids played hard, they played together,” Gerber said. “This was probably the best we worked as a team. Last year, they beat us by 20 both times I think. We only turned the ball over 11 times. There were some big positives.”
East Clinton had its share of the lead in a back and forth game. The Lady Astros led 18-14 late in the first half but Taylor Polley of McClain drained a three to make it 18-17 EC at the break. Gerber said this was Polley’s first game of the season.
“For the pace of the game, we were able to get out and run on them early, which helped us,” Gerber said. “When it got to a half-court game, we executed, got the shots we wanted, just couldn’t get them to fall.”
The late Polley three didn’t seem to faze East Clinton as the Lady Astros extended its lead to 25-19 in the third, Gerber said.
The Lady Tigers made a late push and the East Clinton lead was two, 29-27, going into the final quarter. Neither team was able to do much offensively in the fourth, but Polley hit a free throw with 13.2 seconds to go to put McClain up 33-32.
East Clinton missed its first shot attempt as time ticked off the clock, but was able to get the offensive rebound. Gerber quickly called timeout with 2.8 seconds to play.
On the final play, Gerber said his squad “executed perfectly” its final attempt but had the “ball knocked out of our hands as we were going up for the shot and that sealed it,” said Gerber.
Despite the loss, Gerber said, “Defensively, we probably played the best we have all year. All year the story has been offensively to get the shot fall when we need it.”
SUMMARY
December 14, 2016
@McClain High School
McClain 33 East Clinton 32
M 10.07.10.06…..33
E 10.08.11.03…..32
(32) EAST CLINTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) La. Peterman 1-1-1/4-4 Campbell 4-2-0-10 Lilly 3-0-1/3-7 Durbin 1-1-1/2-4 Davis 1-1-0/1-3 Christian 1-0-0-2 Hall 1-0-0-2. TOTALS 12-5-3/10-32
FIELD GOALS: EC 12-37 (Campbell 4-9); M 12-36
3 PT FIELD GOALS: EC 5-8 (Campbell 2-3 Durbin 1-3 Davis 1-1 La. Peterman 1-1); M 3-11
FREE THROWS: EC 3-10 (Durbin 1-2)
REBOUNDS: EC-25 (Durbin 7 Campbell 4 Davis 4 La. Peterman 3 Christiain 2); M-26
ASSISTS: EC-5 (La. Peterman 2)
STEALS: EC-9 (Durbin 4 Campbell 2 Lilly 2)
BLOCKED SHOTS: EC-1 (Durbin 1)
TURNOVERS: EC-11; M-11
