ARCANUM – The Lady Trojans of Arcanum continued their winning ways by dominating Twin Valley South 63-25 Thursday evening in a Cross County Conference matchup.
For Arcanum it was the Trojans’ third consecutive victory and fifth in the last six games, pushing their record to 6-3 on the season and 4-2 in the CCC.
Both teams started slowly. The Lady Trojans’ man-to-man defense and the two/three zone of the Lady Panthers held scoring to a minimum at the beginning of the first quarter. Finally, Arcanum found some offensive rhythm and used a 9-0 run to take command 11-2 at the end of the period.
“We’ve been starting like that for about four games now,” Arcanum girls basketball coach Matt Grote said. “A little slow out of the gate. We’re trying to figure it out. We’re going through our pregame routine, making sure we get stuff right and making sure we’re focused and ready to go. It’ll come around when we need it to.”
Arcanum continued to widen its lead in the second period thanks to a much improved offensive efficiency that was producing good looks from the outside for 3-pointers, two for McKenzie Sharritts and one for Elle Siculan, or great post-up opportunities for senior center Rebecca Deao. When the intermission hit the Lady Trojans had a 30-12 lead.
The Lady Panthers came out determined to cut into the Arcanum lead, but their shots simply would not fall. They made two early field goals in the third, but when sophomore Mylan Crews made a three ball, making the score 35-19 nearing the midpoint of the period, Twin Valley South would not score again until the fourth. The Lady Trojans commenced on a 13-0 run to close out the quarter to give them a 48-19 advantage.
Arcanum also won the fourth quarter by a 15-6 margin. Stevie Johnting with 13 points and McKenzine Sharritts with a game-high 14 points were hitting from behind the arc to highlight the Lady Trojan scoring.
“Stevie played well and got to the hole a lot,” Grote said. “Mac really caught fire. She has a tendency to hit some threes. She can get streaky. When she gets hot she doesn’t miss.”
Arcanum shot the ball well for the game, going 18-35 from the floor and 7-17 from 3-point range. At the same time they held Twin Valley South to just 33 percent shooting for the game.
Next up for the Lady Trojans is an intra-county home match-up with Versailles on Monday.
Arcanum won the junior varsity contest 42-32.
Box score:
Twin Valley South- 25
Crews 7, Bingham 2, Hutchings 2, Creech 8, Shafer 6.
Arcanum- 63
Ross 7, Siculan 3, Abner 8, Johnting 13, Sharritts 14, Kinney 3, O’Daniel 9, Deao 6.
3ptrs: TVS: 1 (Crews); Arc 7 (Sharritts 4, Siculan, Johnting, Kinney)
Free throws: TVS: 2-4; Arc 6-7
TVS 2 10 7 6 25
Arc 11 19 18 15 63