Maci Moore got the ball at the top of the lane on Tuesday night and dribbled down the right edge of the paint. Two defenders came to help and the Trenton forward found herself triple-teamed. Rather than force up a shot, Moore deftly bounced a pass across the lane to a wide open Lexi Whitaker, who put in the easy bucket for two crucial points in a game that saw Trenton defeat visiting Marceline 55-51 in overtime.
The sequence illustrated Moore’s importance to the Trenton High School girls basketball team, which goes beyond scoring points and grabbing rebounds.
“I think Maci has learned from (last Saturday’s loss to Braymer at the Gallatin Tournament),” Trenton coach Kameron Cool said. “She was trying to score over three people against Braymer and putting it all on herself. Tonight we saw (that) if they are going to double and triple team her, she is going to have to look and trust her teammates. She did that and her teammates came through, especially Lexi there late.”
Moore finished with a game-high 23 points and five assists to lead Trenton. She did that in spite of spending time on the bench with foul trouble.
Moore went to the bench with her third foul in the third quarter and Trenton leading by 10 points. With 2:20 left in the frame, the game was tied at 29 and Cool was forced to send Moore back into the fray. Moore’s fourth foul came at the 6:20 mark of the fourth quarter, again sending the junior to the bench. Moore returned with just over two minutes left in regulation and played the rest of the way, including overtime, without collecting her fifth foul. It also allowed her to be in the game to hit a pair of free throws with 14.6 seconds left that essentially sealed the Trenton victory.
“It was really hard because I just had to be behind (Marceline) players and I couldn’t really do anything,” Moore said. “If they scored, they scored. But, I had other teammates there to help me.”
Following Moore’s free throws, which extended the Trenton lead to 54-51, McKayla Blackburn picked up a steal at mid-court and converted one of two free throws to push the advantage to four. Marceline attempted to fire a three and draw a foul – a four-point play being their last remaining hope – but Teya Cooksey challenged the shot while keeping her distance. The shot fell harmlessly to the floor as the horn sounded, leaving Trenton with the win.
The win was a reversal from Saturday’s loss to Braymer in the Gallatin Tournament championship. That game also came down to the wire, with Trenton coming out on the losing end by two points.
“I thought we rebounded better and didn’t give (Marceline) as many second chance points,” Cool said. “I thought when we absolutely had to have a defensive play we got it and also we scored down the stretch. We literally could not buy a bucket in the fourth quarter against Braymer. We just bounced back offensively really well tonight.”
This win didn’t come without its bumps in the road, however. Trenton struggled with turnovers again and had two opportunities to put the game away in regulation erased by passes out of bounds. The Bulldogs also struggled from the free throw line, going 8-for-21 from the charity stripe. Trenton was 2-for-6 from the line in overtime until Moore and Blackburn knocked down 3-of-4 at the end to seal the win.
But the positives outweighed the negatives. After struggling to find a source of offense outside of Moore in their last two games, Whitaker complimented Moore’s 23 points with 15 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals. The majority of Moore and Whitaker’s combined nine assists came on passes across the lane to each other.
“When I have people on me I can either kick out for a shot or I always know Lexi is on the other side,” Moore said. “We just kind of look for each other or go off of each other.”
Cooksey knocked down a pair of big three-pointers and finished with eight points for Trenton. Chandler Lynch had five points and three assists and Blackburn finished with four points, six steals and three assists.
With the win, Trenton pushed back north of .500 at 3-2 overall.
The Bulldogs are back on their home floor tonight (Friday), playing host to Chillicothe at 6 o’clock. It is the first meeting between the two schools since Trenton defeated the Hornets in the district championship game last season, a win that marked the beginning of the Bulldogs’ run to the Show-Me Showdown.