BLACKSVILLE — The Clay-Battelle girls basketball team’s defense controlled a slow-paced matchup with Paden City Thursday evening as the Cee-Bees won 48-23 on their home court.
Clay-Battelle (10-9) sat in a zone for most of the contest, producing tipped passes and turnovers that never allowed the Wildcats (5-14) to find any sort of offensive rhythm.
We played Barnesville (Oh.) last week and they just diced using man, so we went back to zone,” CB coach David Joyce explained. “If anything’s going to win us a ballgame, it’s going to be defense because that leads to our runouts. If you look at that first half, what really made the difference was running out.”
CB led 15-8 after the first quarter, but it was the middle frames where the Cee-Bees’ defense really made an impact. Paden City was held to a single field goal in the second quarter and just two free throws in the third as CB outscored the Wildcats 26-4.
“Our starters in the zone are four seniors, so they know how to drop, they know how to cover,” Joyce said. We looked at passing lanes. If you get a girl to go dead with the ball, you can cut off passing lanes.”
While the seniors took charge on defense, it was freshman Ali Hellyer who led the offense, scoring a game-high 14 points with a pair of three-pointers.
“She runs like a deer and she can shoot,” Joyce said. “When we need a shooter, she’s it. When no one else can score, she can drop in 15.”
Raylee Hennen was next with 10 points and Laikyn Dalton finished with eight also with a pair of treys. Breanna Debolt and Kenley Statler each had six to round out the scoring.
Kimberly Burch paced Paden City with eight points.
Clay-Battelle will play two games during the final week of the regular season. On Monday the Cee-Bees will play a make-up game at Cameron and then close the season at Hundred on Tuesday.
BOX SCORE
Clay-Battelle 48, Paden City 23
PC 8 2 2 29 — 23
CB 15 13 13 7 — 48
PADEN CITY (5-14) — Mathis 2 1-1 5; Householder 1 0-0 2; A. Wade 1 1-2 3; Burch 3 0-0 8; Gross 2 0-0 5; Ewing 0 0-0 0; P. Wade 0 0-0 0.
CLAY-BATTELLE (10-9) — Hennen4 2-2 10; Dalton 3 0-0 8; E. Moore 1 0-0 2; Debolt 3 0-0 6; Statler 3 0-0 6; Hellyer 6 0-0 14; Riley 1 0-0 2; Morgan 0 0-0 0.
3-Pt. Goals — Paden City 3 (Burch 2, Gross 1). Clay-Battelle 4 (Dalton 2, Hellyer 2).
