ARCANUM – The Arcanum Lady Trojans have twice as many wins as losses after totally tearing apart the winless Tri-County North Panthers on Thursday, 70-29.
The Panthers, coached by Jessica Spitler, fall to 0-9 overall and 0-5 in the Cross County Conference despite giving full effort the entire game. The Trojans are now 8-4 and looking for more wins as they will play again on Thursday night at Twin Valley South. The Trojans are now 3-1 in the CCC and were very pleased to hear about the Franklin Monroe Jets shutting down Miami East as that loss tightened things up even more at the top in the conference race.
The Trojans raced up and down the court the entire night and had four players in double figures and nine players score in all. They were led by freshman Hailey Unger, who was back on track from 3-point land by totaling 16 points and 12 of those came from beyond the arc. Shyanna Baker baked up a dozen points to lead the Panthers as they had only five players dent the scoreboard. Arcanum outscored the powerless Panthers by 21 points from triple land and a robust 24 points from inside the arc. North did outscore the Trojans from the charity stripe, but only by four.
The first eight minutes set the tone of the game as the Lady Trojans raced off to a 13-0 lead at the five minute mark. The Lady Panthers scored their only three points of the quarter next to make it 13-3. Enough was enough as the Trojans turned up the thermostat again in the black and orange gym to go on a 9-0 run to leave the Panthers pawing and gasping for air as the buzzer sounded for a 22-3 count.
Madelyn Fearon led all by knocking in two from long distance en route to her 8 points, followed very closely by Kayla O’Daniel who had six markers. Right behind her was Hailey Unger with five for 19 of the 22 points amassed. Tri-County North was led by Baker with 2 of the Panthers 3 points.
The second quarter was more of the same as the Trojans went on a 10-2 scoring spree to open up an even bigger wound on the beleaguered and bewildered Panthers at 32-5. The 27-point advantage increased to 33 before the buzzer sounded for the Preble County squad that had its best player transfer out after last year. The Trojans were led by Unger who once again saw the three ball to her liking by nailing two of them to help with her 8 points. Gracie Garno used her acrobatic shots and placed six in the scoring column to match freshman Taylor Gray’s total of six. The Panthers scored 10 in the frame led by Lexi Delong who did not connect from long distance but still managed four from underneath. Baker was still ever present on the court and put in three more for her total of five at the half.
Third quarter theatrics showed subs coming in from all places on the Trojan bench and the scoring theme turned into a defensive gem for the Darke County squad. The Trojans shut down the Panthers once again by limiting them to four points for eight minutes of action. The Trojans had a mere dozen with Gray scoring another six points with dominating post moves. O’Daniel matched Tri-County North’s whole team total in this frame by popping in four. TCN‘s four points came from a deuce apiece by Maddy Flory and Baker.
Arcanum led 58-17 going into the final eight minutes. The fourth quarter scoring was even as both squads got into double figures with 12 points each. Leading the Arcanum squadron was Elliana Sloan, who flew in five points with a long distant bomb. Unger landed another long range missile for her fourth triple of the game for 3 points. Sidney Jackson and Baker had 5 apiece in the scorebook for the Panthers who just did not have any answers against the Trojans.
”We are a deep team and we can hit from all spots on the court,” Arcanum coach Michael Dean said. “I will take my whole team over anyone around and we have the toughest non-conference schedule to boot. We must keep on track and fight through our poor free throw shooting as we shot 40 percent tonight, going 4 of 10.
“Gray I believe got another double-double and Fearon and Unger got hot early from the outside,” he continued. “Garno is all over the place and does a lot of things that don’t even show up in the stat book. Our second group got a lot of valuable minutes tonight and showed a lot of hustle and desire. We will be ready when tournament time comes along and we must be ready for Twin Valley South this Thursday night.”
Scoring for Tri- County North – Mackenzie Bacher 3, Flory 2, Jackson 6, Baker 12, and Delong 6. Totals – One triple, nine regulars, and 8 out of 16 freebies for 50 percent for 29 points.
Scoring for Arcanum – O’Daniel 12, Garno 8, Gray 12, Camille Pohl 3, Unger 16, Fearon 10, Sasha Derringer 2, Meghan McCans 2, and Sloan 5. Eight triples, 21 regulars and 4 free throws out of 10 for 40 percent and 70 points.
