PITSBURG — The 11-2 Miami Valley School had to prove they were “Ram” tough in taking down the ever improving Lady Jets Saturday afternoon at the Hangar,53-30.
The Rams hung a loss on the Jets, but the 50 spectators saw a game with plenty of ebb and flow to make it an enjoyable contest to view.
The Jets jettisoned out to a 2 -0 lead at the 5.20 mark of the first period on a fall away jumper by freshman Kennedy Morris. After that the Rams put a lock on the rim on the defensive side and tallied 16 points themselves to take an ominous 16-2 lead. They were led by Tia Karras, who popped in eight points and Liz Bush swished in six.
The second quarter was nearly even-steven as Coach Abby Moore asked more of her players, and it definitely showed as the Jets were only outscored 9-8 for a Ram lead of 25-10.
There were four scorers in the quarter for the Jets that tallied in two points apiece. These players were sophomore Danielle McVey, freshman Kennedy Morris and two other 10th graders in Tara Goubeaux and Kinsey Goins.
The Jets unfortunately only got to the free throw line one time and failed to connect at the charity stripe. Miami Valley was led by Alea Karras with five counters and Alisa Clements with four markers. They were able to knock in five out of eight from the line.
Coach Moore and the Lady Jets came out with high octane fuel in their tank in the third quarter by scoring 11 points and holding the Rams to the same amount. The Jets were led by Goubeaux, who had five points, along with buckets by junior Allyson Masterson, Morris and Goins. Miami Valley was led by Sarah Campbell with three and four other players with a deuce apiece.
The momentum the Jets gathered in the second and third quarters seemed to fade in the fourth as the much taller Miami Valley Rams started rebounding better and throwing the outlet pass that led to fast-break points for easy scores. The Jets never gave up, however, and hustled with tenacity the rest of the quarter by knocking down nine points led by Goubeaux and Goins with four and one free throw by Masterson. The running Rams were led by Alea Karras with seven, Tia Karras and Clements with four followed by Bush with two. Also playing a good floor game but not scoring was Jet senior Carrie Baker.
If you can take away the first and fourth quarters the Jets would have only lost by one point to the Miami Valley squad with the No. 4 rating in the Dayton area. The Jets played with only six players as two players were out with injuries. With the loss the Jets dropped to 2-11 overall, and they are still 2-5 in the conference.
“We never gave up,” Coach Moore said. “We showed good things, but we must do it in all four quarters and not just two. Kennedy Morris showed up very big for us tonight as a freshman with a good all-around floor game .By playing such a tough team as Miami Valley who knocked out Tri-Village in the tournament last year, this will give us great confidence in our upcoming games. We still need to work on our free throws as we only made 2 of 8 from the line.
“They got a lot of rebounds just plainly due to their physicality and us being short on numbers. We simply wore down by the end of the game. I’m very pleased by our second half defense as Miami Valley did not even attempt a free throw in the second half. We look forward to our next game Monday against another 10-win team in Milton Union. The toughness of our schedule will really help us in the upcoming sectional tournament.”
