Miller City’s Jordan Schnipke shoots against Wayne Trace’s Caroline Winans during Saturday’s game at J. Harry Leopold Gymnasium.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
MILLER CITY — Miller City entered Saturday’s matchup against Wayne Trace with one main objective. That was to play at their speed.
The high-paced Wildcats (12-6) forced six first-quarter turnovers and shot 5 of 7 from the field, putting the Raiders (11-7) on their heels early, and using that hot start to get a 49-43 win.
Miller City, who never trailed in the game, led 12-4 three minutes into the first.
“Our goal was to get out in transition and get a quick start,” Miller City coach Ross Heuerman said. “We wanted to start that with our defense by using our pressure to force as many turnovers as we could and turn that into points. It really came down to that first couple of minutes and we were able to power through the rest of the game.”
Although Miller City scored 12 of the first 16 points, Wayne Trace cut the deficit to 19-16 after one and made it a three-point game again with 2:22 to go in the third quarter.
“We dug ourselves a hole, but we came out of that hole when we made up a lot of ground in the third quarter,” Wayne Trace coach Bethany DeJarnett said. “We just kept fighting. We got off the shots we needed to, they just didn’t fall toward the end, but I‘m proud of the way we played today.”
6’1” sophomore Lexi Moore scored a team-high 14 points for Wayne Trace. Careen Winans added 12.
Haper Myers (10 points) made it 40-37 late in the third quarter on her second straight three-point play, which capped an 11-0 run for Wayne Trace.
Miller City responded with eight of the next 10 points, courtesy of some tweaks to their defensive game plan.
“We had to switch back to our man-to-man, then back to our zone just to keep them guessing,” Heuerman said. “The girls responded well. We haven’t used our zone a lot lately, but today it won us the game.”
Jordan Schnipke provided the offensive punch for Miller City with 17 points to lead all scorers. Schnipke made her first five shots of the second half and finished 8 of 9 from the field on Saturday.
“She’s great at attacking the rim and she can knock down the 15-footer,” Heuerman said of Schnipke. “We knew if we could get her in the dribble-drive, we could get other post players into pick-and-roll situations and we did that a couple of times. She’s just an aggressive player. She’s always looking to score and attack for us.”
Maddie Erford added 10 for Miller City. Ava Ruck finished with eight.
Schnipke, a crafty 5’6” senior, also contributed to the collective defensive effort that made life tough on Lexi Moore, who started the game 5 for 5 but slowed down in the second half, shooting just 2 for 6.
“That’s our fourth game in a row seeing someone who’s at or above six feet (tall),” Heuerman said. “We’ve tried a lot of different things and it actually came down to our zone today. We had extra bodies on her to try and keep her in front and keep the ball out of her hands. I thought we did a much better job in the second half of forcing her to take tough shots.”
Both teams shot the ball extremely well from the field. Miller City went 18 of 40 (45%) and Wayne Trace shot 17 of 35 (48%).
The Raiders struggled to hold on to the ball with 23 turnovers, while the Wildcats committed nine.
Wayne Trace held the rebounding advantage 22-16.
Miller City 49, Wayne Trace 43
Wayne Trace 16 6 15 6 – 43
Miller City 19 15 10 5 – 49
Wayne Trace
Lexi Moore 14, Careen Winans 12, Harper Myers 10, Kathleen Stoller 3, Ava Zartman 2, Tianna Sinn 2, Totals: 17-7-43.
Miller City
Jordan Schnipke 17, Maddie Erford 10, Ava Ruck 8, Andrea Pfau 6, Reyna 4, Hailey Warnimont 4, Totals: 18-10-49.
Three-point goals — WT Careen Winans 2; Andrea Pfau 2, Ava Ruck1.
Records: Wayne Trace 11-7, 3-2 GMC; Miller City 12-6, 2-2 PCL
Reach Chris Howell at 567-242-0468 or on Twitter at @Lima_Howell
