Zane Trace Edges Adena 51-48

The third meeting between the Pioneers and Warriors was much closer than the first two. Zane Trace won by margins of 16 and 13 points in their previous matchups in 2019-20.

Adena had taken the first period 12-9 on a drop-in by Cade McKee just before the buzzer. Zane Trace got a hot hand while Adena cooled its shooting in the second quarter as the Pioneers outscored Adena 17-7 to take a 26-19 lead at the half.

It looked like Zane Trace was going to run away with the game in the third, but Adena drained three-pointers on three consecutive possessions and pulled to within 32-30. The Pioneers recovered and extended their lead to 40-30 to close out the period.

In the 4th, Adena stormed back and whittled the lead to 51-48 with an opportunity to tie the game at the end of regulation, but a three-pointer from Logan Bennett missed its mark and Zane Trace grabbed the rebound as time expired.

Nick Nesser led the Pioneers with 17 points ahead of Cam Evans’ 15. Logan Bennett was the game’s top scorer with 19. 

Adena closes its season at 16-9 while Zane Trace improves to 21-3.

The win sends Zane Trace to the DIII District Championship game March 6th at 8:15pm with upset minded Ironton. The Tigers were a 56-41 winner over 3rd seeded Eastern Brown Sunday. Ironton trailed 3-0 but went on a 17-0 run and kept Eastern Brown down 10-17 points the rest of the game. Ironton is 13-10 entering Friday’s game. Zane Trace defeated Ironton in the regular season 54-50.