While it was all tied up 29-29 at halftime, the Peebles Indians were not quite the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs's equal in the second half on Thursday. They took a 54-46 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Mustangs. The loss unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for Peebles in their matchups with Lynchburg-Clay: they've now lost three in a row.
Despite the loss, Peebles still got an impressive performance from Payton Johnson, who dropped a double-double on 22 points and 16 rebounds. That was a full 47.8% of Peebles' points, marking the sixth time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Abigail Smalley, who scored six points along with seven rebounds and two blocks.
Lynchburg-Clay's victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Jade Massey, who almost dropped a double-double on 16 points and nine steals. Massey has been hot recently, having posted three or more steals the last 13 times she's played. Another player making a difference was Macy Etienne, who scored 24 points.
Peebles' loss ended a eight-game streak of away wins and brought them to 18-4. As for Lynchburg-Clay, the victory was the third in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 16-5.
Peebles will be playing in front of their home fans against Rock Hill at 6:15 p.m. on Thursday. Rock Hill will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Ohio Rankings (they are ranked 458th, while Peebles is ranked 139th). As for Lynchburg-Clay, they will head out on the road to take on South Webster at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. Hopefully South Webster focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 17 on Thursday.
