WILMINGTON — Miya Nance had 26 points to lead Wilmington to a 52-34 win over East Clinton Thursday in a cross-county battle at Fred Summers Court.
The WHS freshman matched her previous season-high in points as Wilmington evened its record at 6-6.
“I thought she had really good energy tonight,” WHS head coach Zach Williams said. “She started off very aggressive on the defensive end. She stayed out of foul trouble and she’s hopefully starting to learn how important she is in the game. She did a great job tonight creating some turnovers and getting some easy transition points.”
Lauren Runyon led East Clinton with 12 points.
After a tightly contested first quarter in which each team countered the other’s punches, the Hurricane was able to double the Astros second quarter scoring, holding EC to just two field goals en route to a 24-16 lead at the half.
Starting the second half, a phenomenal read turned into a steal and fast-break points for Wilmington’s Addison Martin.
“I think that was very important,” EC head coach Bill Bean said. “That’s one of the things that we always try to talk about at halftime. You wanna start the game fast, on a good note and I think probably more importantly, start the second half on a good note.”
The Hurricane scored the first six points of the third before Cheyenne Reed got the first EC bucket. It was now the Astros turn to inflict some damage, though, as a beautiful move found Megan Hadley open at the rim where she converted. Brynn Conley countered for WHS before EC was able to put together a small run of their own.
Abbi Reynolds knocked down a high-arching, mid-range shot to get the game back to single digits. A couple of possessions later, Reed drained a tough three. Nance finally stopped the bleeding for Wilmington. Although another steal resulted in Hurricane points, the Astros then flipped the table as back to back turnovers resulted in EC scoring the final four of the half and heading into the fourth quarter only down 37-31.
Wilmington’s fourth quarter was filled with great plays, including a deep Nance three-ball and phenomenal cuts from members of the starting five. But perhaps the biggest highlight was the Hurricane defense that didn’t allow a single point until just 56 seconds were remaining in the game and created many turnovers resulting in easy baskets.
“It seems like every game we have a four-, five-, six-minute period, a drought, where we can’t score. I don’t think Wilmington really did anything different. We just had a couple turnovers, missed a couple good shots we had been hitting,” said Bean.
EC falls to 2-12 on the year and looks to rebound Saturday against Cedarville. Wilmington looks to make it two in a row versus National Division opponent Williamsburg Saturday.
SUMMARY
Jan 11, 2024
@ Fred Summers Court
Wilmington 52, East Clinton 34
EC^11^5^15^3^^34
W^14^10^13^15^^52
(52) WILMINGTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Brown 0-0-0-0, Nance 7-2-4-24, Martin 1-1-1-6, Hudson 2-0-0-4, Conley 2-0-0-4, Cole 0-0-0-0, Martin 4-0-1-9, Bayless 0-0-0-0, Tippett 1-0-1-3, Walker 1-0-0-2
(34) EAST CLINTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Kay Terrell 0-0-0-0, Arnold 0-0-0-0, Reynolds 1-0-0-2, Schiff 0-1-2-5, Hadley 3-0-1-7, Runyon 1-2-4-12, Ken Terrell 0-0-0-0, Tate 0-1-3-6, Reed 1-0-0-2, Scott 0-0-0-0, TOTALS 0-0-0-0
