Injuries have cut her freshman, sophomore and junior campaigns.

And on Friday night, she continued to make up for the lost time.

McLean had a game-high 17 points to move the Holly Springs girls basketball team to 4-1 on the season with a 48-36 victory against Panther Creek.

"I had an ACL injury from the year before, so I didn't get that much playing time (last year," said McLean. "This year it's a lot different."

Is it ever.

After not scoring in double-figures last year, McLean is averaging 15.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.

"My goal this year to play a fully healthy season," McLean said. "I know what I'm capable of, and I want to (play) to my full capabilities."

The Golden Hawks never trailed in a match-up between two playoff teams from a year ago. Sophomore point forward Kiara Leslie had 15 points and seven rebounds in the winning effort.

Under first-year coach Richard Young, the program's third coach in as many seasons, Holly Springs had already knocked off Tri-Nine contender Cary by 24 points earlier this week.

"It's been an exciting week," Young said. "We're young, but we're scrappy."

Points were hard to come by for either team.

Panther Creek, who was without point guard Claire Wach due to injury, got just three points combined from its starting guards. Jordan Webb came off the bench to score eight points for the Catamounts, which relied mostly on their inside game.

PC center Allie Tuttle, a junior, gave the Golden Hawks problems, scoring 16 points and bringing down 10 rebounds.

"She's a good player and (PC) coach (Geoff) Bowman has those girls fundamentally sound. Every zone defense I threw at him, he scored on. So in the second half we had to make some adjustments," Young said. "We had to put somebody different on her, we tried to front her, we tried to play behind her, and she just kept scoring. That was definitely the talk at half, and the (assistant) coaches helped me figure some things out to try and stop her."

The Hawks forced Panther Creek to beat it from the outside in the second half, and it worked to Holly Springs' advantage.

"We lost the game (when the score was) 13-11. We were down by two and we should have been up by about six or seven at that point," Bowman said. "You get one of the best teams in the conference that close early on, you need to take advantage. We were playing better than them at the time. Our shots weren't falling in the first half, and their defense stepped up in the second half."