By Rob Kiser
Miami Valley Today
CASSTOWN — The Newton girls basketball team picked the wrong night to play Miami East Thursday night in CCC action.
And Miami East coach Bruce Vanover hopes it will become a trend in the second half of the season.
Miami East improved to 7-6 overall and 5-2 in the CCC with a 54-25 win over the visiting Indians, who dropped to 4-9 overall and 2-5 in CCC play.
Miami East came out on fire and never cooled off.
“One of the things I wanted to see after the game was our shooting percentage,” Vanover said. “We were 40 percent from the floor, 48 percent on twos and 30 percent on threes. Obviously, the one area where we have been struggling is scoring. Those percentages are way above are season averages.”
Kayly Fetters hit two baskets early, before Paxton Hunley and Camryn Miller followed with back-to-back 3-pointers.
After another basket by Fetters, Paxton Hunley hit another 3-pointer to make it 15-0 with four minutes remaining in the first quarter.
Kailey Heisey finally got Newton on the board at the 3:00 mark of the opening quarter, but Paxton Hunley closed the quarter with her third three as the Vikings led 18-4.
“We just ran into a buzzsaw,” Newton coach Ryan Fiely said. “We didn’t do as good of job as we could have getting out on some of their shooters, but they couldn’t miss.”
At the same time, East’s zone defense was impenetrable as usual, with Newton not reaching double digits until the final minute of the third quarter on a basket by Jessica Mitchell.
East led 27-8 at halftime and 49-10 after three quarters.
“The third quarter has been a struggle for us,” Vanover said. “I think we only gave up two points in the third quarter tonight, so that was much better.”
Camryn Gleason came alive in the fourth quarter, scoring 10 points for the Indians and hitting three 3-pointers.
“She has done that a couple games in a row, I would like to have her do that all four quarters,” Fiely said with a smile. “She definitely kept playing hard and never quit. We got down early and then we let it affect us on offense.”
Paxton Hunley had 21 points to lead East, who had nine players reach the scoring column.
Lauren Wright added 12 points, while Fetters finished with nine points and Miller added seven points.
Gleason paced Newton with 11 points and Madalynn Hughes added six points.
While Newton plays National Trail Saturday, East will host unbeaten Tri-Village.
“It is a big challenge,” Vanover said. “They are an outstanding team. I felt like we had been capable of shooting like we did tonight all year, we just hadn’t done it.”
And he would like nothing better than to see it continue Saturday.
BOXSCORE
Newton (25)
Kailey Heisey 1-0-2, Madalynn Hughes 2-1-6, Camryn Gleason 3-2-11, Jaden Stine 2-0-4, Katelyn Walters 0-0-0, Tori Benedict 0-0-0, Hannah Biedelman 0-0-0, Jessica Mitchell 1-0-2, Emma Szakal 0-0-0. Totals: 9-3-25.
Miami East (64)
Paxton Hunley 8-1-21, Rori Hunley 1-0-2, Camryn Miller 3-0-7, Kayly Fetters 3-3-9, Cadence Gross 2-0-4, Kyleigh Kirby 0-0-0, Megan McDowell 1-1-3, Lauren Wright 5-0-12, Grave Lawson 0-0-0, Chloe Aviles 0-0-0, Lauren Barnes 1-1-4, Sera Rush 0-0-0, Josie Crawford 1-0-2, Lindi Snodgrass 0-0-0. Totals: 25-6-64.
3-point field goals — Newton: Hughes, Gleason (3). Miami East: Paxton Hunley (4), Miller, Wright (2), Barnes.
Score By Quarters
Newton 4 8 10 25
Miami East 18 27 49 64
Records: Newton 4-9 (2-5), Miami East 7-6 (5-2).
Contact Rob Kiser at [email protected].
©2020 Miami Valley Today, all rights reserved.
