Hinton – With regional seeds finalized, Thursday’s matchup between Summers County and Midland Trail had no bearing on regional placement.
But it was a way for both teams to gain some momentum ahead of next week’s regional tournament. And unfortunately for the host Bobcats they never found any until it was too late.
Summers was plagued by a myriad of self-inflicted wounds Thursday, falling behind 15 points before dropping a 59-55 decision to the Patriots in Hinton.
The Bobcats were sunk by several statistical outputs, but none loomed larger than their free throw shooting as they were 12-of-29 from the line.
“We struggled,” Summers head coach Doug Trail said. “We were terrible Monday night against Oak Hill. We were something 4-for-15 or 16 or something like that. We were 4-for-19 at Shady last night. We had been shooting free throws well and all of a sudden it just left. We started playing better then the free throw line went away. But it is what it is.”
For Trail the night belonged to Raelyn Morris who scored 15 of her 28 points in the fourth quarter, proving that 15-point cushion that made a difference. In that frame she went 4-for-7 from the field and 5-for-7 from the line, nailing a pair of 3s.
It followed up her 30-point performance against Summers County a week ago where she hit a school record seven 3-pointers.
The strong closeout came after playing games the previous two days, one a double overtime loss to Westside and another a blowout loss at Wyoming East. In all the spurt came in Trail’s thirteenth quarter of basketball in three days with fellow standout Kenzie Chaffin relegated to the bench after fouling out.
“I think the atmosphere of this school, the student section and everything was fueling us,” Morris said. “The first quarter was actually really rough. It was something else. I don’t think we were playing team ball really and the fourth quarter we kind of put it all together and started hitting our shots and ended up on top.
“Yesterday we did run out of gas, I’m not going to lie. That was a rough game, but I feel like losing yesterday made us more motivated to push today and try to get that win today.”
Aside from the free throws and Morris’ fourth quarter eruption, the play of Trail in the second quarter went along long way in deciding the outcome. Chaffin, who finished with 16 points, sat almost the entirety of the second quarter with three fouls. Summers was never able to capitalize on her absence, shooting 1-of-13 from the field in the frame and turning it over six times.
Trail used that stifling effort to win the frame and outscore the hosts 6-2 with Morris nabbing three steals and scoring four of those points.
“Our whole team is basically defense and effort,” Midland Trail head coach John Mark Kincaid said. “We pound the ball inside to Kenzie. Raelyn and Presley (Walker) knock down shots, but we’re an effort and defensive kind of team. We’re lucky to have a really good post presence. But her fouls, they were fouls and we hope she learns from that for next Friday because if you’ve got two fouls, you’ll play through that.”
Trail fell into an early hole at 14-7, seeing the game slip away early but drew back to within a point when Jessi Mooney capped the first quarter with a three-point play at 15-14.
Mooney gave Trail its first lead at 16-15 and Morris extended it to three with a layup, capping an 11-1 run that spanned the first two frames.
Summers scored its only points of the quarter on a Lynzie Farley layup and went into the half down 20-17.
Jaelynn Boone snapped the offensive skid early for Summers with a layup and 3 but Chaffin took over, scoring eight of her 16 points in the third quarter, all of which came consecutively for her team, giving them a 28-24 advantage.
“While I was sitting on the bench in the first half I was just kind of reading the defense and our offense and just looking for open spots to go,” Chaffin said. “We started running our plays and once we started running our plays we got wide open layups and if we got trapped we kicked it out and just trusted our teammates.”
Morris took the baton from there, scoring Trail’s next seven points and putting it up 35-27 with the advantage ultimate sitting at seven points heading into the final frame.
Hadley Bennett, who nailed five 3s on Wednesday against Shady Spring, canned one early in the fourth to cut the deficit to four but Morris and Chaffin hit like a tidal wave afterward.
A three-point play from Chaffin pushed the advantage to 10 before back-to-back 3s from Morris made it a 49-35 game in favor of Trail.
The lead reached 15 twice at 51-36 and 53-38 but a 17-4 run to close the contest gave Summers at least a glimmer of hope. Fortunately for the visitors the clock favored them as Summers’ final bucket, another Bennett 3, came with under seven second to go.
“They were pretty motivated,” Kincaid said. “When you get a team that beats you that often for so many years and with the tradition and coaches and star players that comes through here, it’s a heckuva program. Well-coached then, well-coached now. It’s just a good program and pretty sweet win. We were savoring it after the game.”
Morris and Chaffin were the only two Patriots in double figures.
Frley led Summers with 21 points while Boon netted 12.
Midland Trail
Kenzie Chaffin 16, Raelyn Morris 28, Presley Walker 5, Jessi Mooney 6, Brooke Ewing 2, Ava Bragg 2
Summers County
Jaelynn Boone 12, Carly Persinger 8, Hadley Bennett 8, Brookie McGraw 5, Lynzie Farley 21, Ali Persinger 1
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