John Bruce, Staff Writer
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
CIRCLEVILLE — With just over five minutes to play on Tuesday, Logan Elm found itself trailing McClain for the first time.
Yet, that didn’t worry Kimmy Petty one bit.
The senior sharpshooter connected on a triple from the wing at the 5:01 mark of the fourth quarter to give the Braves (1-0) the lead — one they wouldn’t relinquish on their way to a 48-40 season-opening win over McClain.
“It felt awesome, but ultimately it was about us making that extra pass,” Petty said. “As for the win itself, I think it is really good for us to have the adversity of the foul trouble and stuff early in the season and show that we can overcome and fight through it.”
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
The Braves began the game with a triple from Kiannah Ingram to spark the offense before junior Palynn Wray made a quick impact with a driving score and an assist to Maleah Gardner on the interior for a 7-0 run.
McClain (0-1) got its first bit of momentum when Larah Henson finished a three-point play to cut the deficit to 8-7, which was the closest the Tigers would get until the final quarter.
Petty canned a triple from the right wing, before an Ingram steal and pass ahead to Wray for a runout layup gave the Braves a 13-7 advantage. McClain’s Paisley Pryor then scored the final four points of the first, cutting McClain’s lead to 13-11.
“I think it’s awesome. We are super glad to have her, “Petty said of Wray. “It is nice to have another ball-handler and it lets me and Kiki play more of a wing instead, because she’s an awesome distributor.”
The teams traded scores before Petty rang from downtown again, pushing the lead back to five points. Pryor answered with a put back basket, but Ingram increased the lead with another triple a possession later to keep the Tigers at bay.
Pryor added four more points to cut the deficit to two before Ingram scored a putback basket of her own, giving the Braves a 23-19 advantage as the teams headed to the locker room.
“We’ve been working on our defense a lot in practice,” Petty said. “It was nice to see it against a different team. Our post players, who aren’t the tallest, stepped up and they played really big tonight.”
McClain cut LE’s edge to two in the third quarter a handful of times, but on each occasion, Ingram countered in an immaculate way.
Pryor scored before Ingram forced a turnover and scored in transition on their next defensive possession. Leah Lovett scored with her left hand for the Tigers, but Ingram answered with a midrange floater.
McClain’s Brie Cummins scored a runout layup, but Ingram once again answered with a floater, this time in the lane.
Following a defensive stop, Ingram got the ball on the wing before crossing over to her left and hitting yet another floater on the baseline to increase the lead to six for the Braves.
“It feels great when they think that I’m going to shoot a 3, then I dribble and hit a pullup,” Ingram said. “They have to guard two different ways since I can’t just shoot 3s all the time.”
McClain continued to counter the outstanding display from Ingram by taking advantage of its size on the inside.
Lovett poured in a pair of free throws before scoring on a nice post move across the lane to cut the deficit to 32-27 late in the third.
Wray extended the lead at the free throw stripe before Pryor scored on the interior. A drive from Ingram gave the Braves a seven-point advantage, but Pryor finished a tough right-handed play as time expired in the third to grab momentum to close the quarter.
The Tigers used that momentum, eventually taking the lead at 37-36, with an 8-2 run — finished by a shot from Pryor on the inside with just under six minutes remaining.
That’s when Petty and the Braves answered the bell with a massive haymaker of their own.
As the Braves moved the ball around, Ingram was being face-guarded in the corner. Wray saw her cutting towards the lane before kicking it out to Petty instead.
Petty, cognizant of her defender sliding down slightly due to the cut, squared up and buried the triple to give the Braves a 39-37 lead with 5:01 to play.
Although the shot from Petty didn’t provide an immediate knockout blow, neither team was giving an inch defensively over the next two minutes of game action.
It wasn’t until Lovett split a pair of free throws with 2:59 to play that a team scored again.
Logan Elm landed its next shot to stagger the Tigers even more, when Wray buried a triple from the right wing to take a 42-38 lead with 2:35 to play.
While the Tigers responded when Henson found Lovett on the inside, the Braves closed out with a bucket from Ingram, followed by her and Petty hitting a pair of free throws to seal the victory.
“The win is good, it makes us look good,” Ingram said. “Especially with their size … they were way taller than us, so it was good that even with our size, we were able to defend them. We’re going to come out even bigger, even better with the more games we play.”
While the seniors, along with Wray were the obvious impact players for Logan Elm, the play of Molly Miller, Halee Timmons and Maddie Evans off the bench helped make the win possible as Gardner and Kennedy Groff dealt with foul trouble all evening.
“They had a little rough start at first, but they got into the groove of the game pretty fast, so props to them for being able to adjust to that varsity speed,” Petty said of the underclassmen.
Ingram finished with a game-high 23 points, while Petty added 11. Wray finished with nine points and passed out four assists.
McClain was led by Pryor, who had 18 points and 10 rebounds. Lovett added 11 points and grabbed six boards of her own.
The Braves will return to action next Monday night as they host Piketon. Meanwhile, McClain travels to Lynchburg-Clay that same evening.
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