MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Class A had a fun rivalry showdown Friday night as Clay-Battelle overcame in-county foe Trinity Christian, 62-50. It’s the first time in seven meetings that the Cee-Bees have walked away with a win.
The Warriors (3-3) entered the match up with Jaclyn Smith averaging over 20 points per game, while the Cee-Bees (3-2) host a group of five fiery shooters led by Liv Ammons averaging roughly 14 points per game. She snapped that average at Trinity, and dropped in 17.
“We’ve been struggling with ball handling after losing point guard [Rylee Burnette],” C-B coach David Joyce said, “but Liv is tall and calm enough to take control of the game. She’s a sophomore but has grown up [the last few games].”
Another hot shooter is Joleigh Sollars, the only senior on the team. She only had 13 points against the Warriors, but netted three 3-pointers to keep C-B ahead.
“Joleigh is deadly from 3-point range, but she did a good job dishing to the post when guards would come out and defend her,” Joyce said.
Autumn Stewart, another top player for the Cee-Bees, was the highest scoring player on the night with 18 points off nine field goals. Camren Watson was the fourth and final girl to reach double digits with 10 points.
TCS was paced by Smith with 19 points off four field goals and a 9 of 12 performance from the free throw line. Maggie Mercure tossed in 15 more on four buckets and 7 of 10 free throws.
Even with those free throws — 30 total chances with a rough and tumble Cee-Bees defense — TCS was unable to overcome C-B’s clicking offense.
“Jaclyn hit her foul shots which is great, and she was hitting her outside shots at a higher rate, but she knows she has a long way to go,” TCS coach Mike Baldy said. “As a team there’s still a lot of coaching for us to do.
“I have more respect for David Joyce than any other coach I’ve gone against. He finds the weak spots and keeps [exploiting] them. He knew we were weak on the block and kept attacking that.”
C-B outscored the Warriors 31-18 at the half before the teams closed out going shot-for-shot with each other.
“Their speed caused us to reach, but we boxed out and rebounded well,” Joyce said. “It’s been a while since we’ve beaten them. It boiled down to their speed against our size.”
Clay-Battelle returns to action on Jan. 3, 2020, at South Harrison. Trinity on the other hand picks back up today at Frontier, Ohio, at 1 p.m.
Box Score
CLAY-BATTELLE (3-2)
Stewart 9 0-0 18; Ammons 6 3-4 17; Sollars 5 0-0 13; Watson 5 0-0 10; Wilson 1 0-0 2; Cain 1 0-0 2; Totals: 27 3-4 62.
TRINITY CHRISTIAN (3-2)
Smtih 4 9-12 19; Mercure 4 7-10 15; Austin 2 3-8 7; Pancoast 3 0-0 7; White 1 0-0 2; Totals: 14 19-30 50.
C-B 16 14 17 14 — 62
TCS 9 9 17 15 — 50
3-pointers: C-B 5 (Sollars 3, Ammons 2); TCS 3 (Smith 2, Pancoast)
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