BLACKSVILLE — The first game of any season is always a time of excitement, energy, enthusiasm, and maybe not so much execution. But for the Clay-Battelle girls’ basketball team, a whole lot of one “E”: Effort, and just enough of another “E” — experience — added up to an encouraging W, as it dispatched Paden City on Thursday night 48-23.
The effort piece from the Cee-Bees (1-0) showed up quite consistently throughout the game and the lineup, especially on defense, as the Wildcats (0-1) were limited to just 10 points through the first three quarters. And the experience part? That came from senior shooting guard Liv Ammons, who scored 16 first-half points on her way to a game-high 22. The smooth, controlled floor general took the shots that were open, attacked the paint when the lanes were clear and involved her teammates in the offensive flow. A pair of sophomores, Lydia Moore, who scored 8 points, and Kenley Statler’s 13, filled up the Cee-Bee’s stat sheet from the paint.
“It was so great to get back out there, and have a normal start to the year,” Statler said after the game. “I think we were a little nervous — I know I was — but we settled in on defense pretty well. I know we concentrated a lot on boxing out and rebounding in practice this week, and I think we did a pretty good job with that, too. It was just great to get our first win in our first game.”
Clay-Battelle burst out to a 15-3 first quarter lead, followed that up by a 12-2 second quarter and an 11-5 third frame for a dominant 38-10 advantage, then cruised to the win. However, coach David Joyce admitted that his team’s execution, highlighted by a unnerving 30 turnovers, is definitely a work in progress.
“We lost four starters from last year, so we don’t have a lot of varsity experience past Liv,” Joyce said. “No doubt, we didn’t take care of our offensive possessions like we need to, but that will come with more minutes on the court. Already, we’ve made huge improvements based on how we played during our scrimmage last week.
“What I liked the most out there was our effort, our hustle, our scrappiness and our willingness to dive and battle. We supported each other out there, and it was really great to see Kenley playing with purpose and confidence. We’ll need her and all the sophomores to mature quickly, and this was a solid first step on our journey.”
The Cee-Bees face Valley Wetzel for their first road game of the season at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
PC (0-1) 3 2 5 13 – 23
CB (1-0) 15 12 11 10 – 48
PADEN CITY
Jordyn Rose 0 0-2 0 Jocelyn Sawinski 1 1-9 3 McKenzie Thomas 6 3-4 17 Aurora Amos 1 0-0 2 Lexi Mathis 0 1-2 1 Totals 8 5-17 23
CLAY-BATTELLE
Raylee Hennen 2 0-0 4 Reagan Darling 0 1-2 1 Liv Ammons 8 3-6 22 Lydia Moore 3 2-2 8 Kenley Statler 6 1-2 13 Totals 19 7-12 48
Three-point FG – PC 2 (Thomas 2), CB 3 (Ammons 3).
