ARCANUM – The Lady Trojans struggle Saturday morning but battled just enough to defeat the visiting Eaton Lady Eagles 42-41 in a non-conference matchup.
“It’s a win,” said Arcanum coach, Abbey Moore. “It better be one that motivates us moving forward.”
The Lady Trojans struggled to find the basket in the opening quarter and faced a 0-4 deficit before Hailey Unger hit back-to-back free throws with 2:34 on the first quarter clock to trail 2-4.
“Credit to Eaton,” Moore said. “They came out on a Saturday morning ready to play. We did not come out with that same intensity and same drive.”
Trailing 4-7, Unger dialed in from beyond the arc with 0:24 showing to knot the score at 7-7 followed by 2-2 at the line to give Arcanum a 9-7 lead with 15 seconds remaining.
Eaton close out scoring with time running out to make it a 9-9 game after one period of play. Unger paced the Lady Trojans with 7 first period points including a perfect 4-4 at the charity stripe.
Period No. 2 had Arcanum take an 11-10 lead before the Lady Eagles used a 6-0 run to lead 16-11. The Lady Trojans battle back to close out the first half on a 6-3 run to trail Eaton 17-19 at the break.
The Lady Trojans took the third period 13-10 paced by Meghan McCans 5 points including a 3-pointer to take a 1-point 30-29 lead to the final period of play.
“I can recall several hustle plays that we won during that stretch and gave us easy buckets on the offensive end,” said Coach Moore. “I told Hailey (Unger) and Madelyn (Fearon) they are going to see that all year – two girls in their face.”
“They were able to score in transition during that time and that was huge,” Moore added. “The effort plays on defense allows you to score a little bit easier in transition and give you those opportunities and we were able to do that.”
Arcanum took advantage of a 7-0 run in under two minutes of play to open the fourth and grab a 37-29 lead. Eaton battle back to outscore the home team 11-3 and trail Arcanum 41-42 with the ball going out of bounds under its own basket with less than a second (0:008) remaining on the game clock and inbounding the ball. A 12 foot Lady Eagles’ baseline shot rattled off the rim giving Arcanum the 1 point win.
“We just had uncharacteristic mistakes on the offensive end and our defense kind of let us down there at the beginning, but in the end we were able to overcome that – ended up scoring more points than them,” Coach Moore concluded.
Unger led Arcanum and all scorers with a game high 20 points.
BOXSCORE:
ARCANUM 42, EATON 41
ARCANUM – H. Unger 20, M. McCans 8, Emilie Fout 6, T. Gray 4, Ellie Fout 2, M. Fearon 2 – TOTALS – 13 7-12 2
EATON – L. Shepherd 15, A. Miller 10, A. Mowen 6, K. Kidwell 4, O. Baumann 4, K. Pitsinger 2 – TOTALS 11 7-10 4 41
3-POINTERS
Arcanum 3 (H. Unger 2, M. McCans 1)
Eaton 4 (A. Mowen 2, L. Shepherd 1, A. Miller 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS:
09-08-13-12 Arcanum
09-10-10-12 Eaton
