WAYNESVILLE — The East Clinton Lady Astros dropped their opening round game in the Spartan Basketball Holiday Classic losing to the The Miami Valley School Rams, 72-64, Tuesday night at Waynesville High School.
With the defeat, the Lady Astros fall to 2-7 on the year.
Sophomore Mackenzie Campbell led East Clinton with 24 points, including 16 in the first half. Paige Lilly added 10 points.
For the victorious Lady Rams, Alyssa Clements led the way with 23, followed by Tia Karras with 22.
East Clinton trailed by a 41-32 deficit at halftime and, after the Rams reeled off 7 unanswered points to begin the second half, things looked bleak for the Lady Astros who were staring at a 16-point deficit 48-32.
However, East Clinton was determined to make a game of it and battled back; eventually cutting the deficit to 8 with 4:30 to play, 61-53, on Lacy Peterman’s bank shot in the lane.
The Lady Astros were unable to get any closer the rest of the way, despite winning the fourth quarter by a 23-16 margin.
Miami Valley capitalized at the free throw line, converting 21 of 27 attempts from the line. East Clinton was 10 of 13 from the charity stripe, including seven of nine in the fourth quarter.
“Before the game, if you would have told me we would score 64 points, and turn it over just 11 times, I would not have believed it,” said East Clinton head coach Steven Gerber after the contest. “I felt the kids played very hard and did not give up, even when we fell behind by that big margin. What really hurt us we could not keep pace with them; they just beat us down the floor most of the night.”
Karras was the go-to player for the Rams as she scored 13 in the second half, many on lay-ups, which Gerber addressed.
“We allowed 24 points on layups and you can’t expect to win doing that. We are still a young team and we’re doing a better job of playing together,” Gerber said. “We just have to find a way to put it all together and when we do that, it will mean some wins.”
East Clinton will play 6 p.m. in the consolation game of the tournament against either Waynesville and Greenon.
SUMMARY
December 27, 2016
Spartan Basketball Holiday Classic
@Waynesville High School
Miami Valley 72 East Clinton 64
EC 16.16.09.23…..64
MV 18.23.15.16…..72
(64) EAST CLINTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Peterman 2-0-0-4, Campbell 10-4-0-24, Lilly 4-0-2-10, Durbin 4-0-0-8, Davis 1-0-3-5, Christian 2-0-0-4, Hall 2-0-5-9. TOTALS 25-4-10-64.
(72) MIAMI VALLEY (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Bush 3-2-6-11, E. Lyon 1-0-1-3, Karras 9-1-3-22, Clements 5-2-11-23, Zerba 2-0-0-4, M. Lyon 3-0-0-6. TOTALS 23-5-21-72.
