BLACKSVILLE – Trinity junior Jenna Barnett scored 12 of her 31 points in the fourth quarter as the Warriors (7-7) earned a 53-27 victory over the Clay-Battelle Cee-Bees Wednesday night inside the Statler-Wilson Gymnasium.
Trinity had multiple defensive looks focused on denying the ball inside to C-B’s Kenley Statler who scored 30 points a day prior against Tygarts Valley. She finished with 12 points for the Cee-Bees.
TCS guard Kaylee Wimer added 12 points of her own, joining Barnett as the only two Warriors to reach double figures.
“Kaylee has shot the ball tremendously this season, all season,” TCS head coach Mike Baldy said. “We tell the kids that you won’t make the shots if you don’t take the shots and that was the case tonight for Kaylee and we are glad she took the shots. Some of those were pretty deep.”
Barnett and Wimer combined for all eight of the triples for the Warriors (four each), as they took advantage of the 1-3-1 zone being played by the Cee-Bees on defense.
“(Wimer) has come way farther than we thought she would from this season to last season,” Baldy said. “We have multiple players that have one that really.”
On top of the offense from TCS was some solid defense. One that changed frequently, including three times in the first quarter. The Warriors began in a 2-3 zone that encouraged C-B to shoot the ball from deep. But after missing their first 5 in a row, the Cee-Bees tried to dump the ball inside. However, the inside defense of Abigail Fisher and Sucora Brown smothered C-B and Statler.
“Abigail’s scoring has been down the last few games, but she does so much more for us,” Baldy said. “We will try and figure out how to get the ball to her more to help. Sucora is just such a great player and she was amazing tonight.”
The Warriors used an 18-point third quarter to put the game out of reach after three quarters at 41-14, but Barnett was far from done.
She entered the fourth with 19 points before going on a tear to score all 12 points for TCS in the final frame, giving her 31 for the night. The junior shot 11 for 17 from the floor with four from three-point range and she made 5 of 7 from the stripe, leading her team to a critical victory to get them back to .500.
With the back half of the season ahead of them, beginning with a big home matchup against Frankfort this Saturday, Baldy and his team understand that it will only get more difficult week by week and says the offensive fundamentals of the team need to be a little sharper to ensure they put themselves in position to win.
“Some of our players just need to remember their fundamentals, we’re catching the ball and not facing up to the basket or not passing the ball well,” he said. “It’s little things we need to clean up as we go forward. this is a good win for us, the second of the week and as you saw, the bench was up and loud tonight with good vibes.”
The Warriors will host Frankfort on Saturday on the hill in Sabraton in a doubleheader with the boys’ team beginning at 11:00 a.m. Clay-Battelle is back in action Friday at home against Doddridge County.
Trinity Christian 53, Clay Battelle 27
TCS 12 11 18 12 – 53
C-B 2 4 8 13 – 27
Trinity Christian – Barnett 17 5-7 31 Wimer 5 0-0 12; Fisher 3 0-0 2; Brown 7 0-0 8
C-B – Statler 10 0-2 12; Dalton 12 2-4 8; Moore 4 0-0 5; Eastham 1 0-0 2
3pt goals – TCS 8 (Wimer 4, Barnett 4); C-B 1 (Moore).
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