After a night full of high intensity and steals from both sides, the Hawks fell 43-36 to the Lancers.
The first quarter could have started off better for The Lady Hawks, but they were able to keep it close despite St. Pius’ pressure down 12-9. Hillsboro Sophomore Dyllan Day led the charge for the Lady Hawks with seven of the first quarter points.
In the second, the Hawks went back and forth with the Lancer’s. Hillsboro’s defense was on its heels and the lead grew to four points, the Hawks were able to score most of their baskets from quickly breaking St. Pius’ press.
“Even though we lost, I still feel like we played fairly well,” said Day. “Our defense was great and we were able to keep the other team from getting some of their usual shots. I feel like I was able to get most of my shots because we were working as a team and quickly setting up our offense. Swinging the ball allowed us to get inside shots as well as some good outside shots.”
The break at Halftime didn’t play into the Hawks favor. St. Pius dominated the third quarter despite the Hawks’ defense giving it their all and were out-scored 10-4. “Overall I think everyone played really good defense,” said Kayla VanHorn. “I think what got us the hardest was their press. Pius got a lot of steals which I think was what got them the majority of their points.”
The Hawks weren’t going to go down without a fight and picked up the pace in the fourth quarter. Coach Hubbard decided to pull a strategy out of the Lancers bag, as we saw the Hawks establish an effective press holding St. Pius to 10 points. As we saw the defense big deep, the offense was able to do the same, out-scoring the Lancers 13-10 to close out the game, but it proved to be too little too late as the Hawks fell 43-36.
VanHorn and Day would be the leading scorers of the night, ending with 13 and 12 points respectively. Day shot 62% from the field going 5-8 and 66% from the charity stripe.
The Hawks also had a rough night at the free throw line, going 8 for 17.
Kaylee Hilton would end the night with four, Madelyn Shelby with three, and Zoe Wood, Hailey Genge, and Sara Stokes all with two points.
“I feel like the score did not reflect how hard we worked,” Wood expressed. “We gave 110% on defense and hustled the entire game. We really just struggled on offense. We took some really good shots, but none of them would fall. Overall, we did some really good things in this game that we can apply to future games.”
The Hawks next matchup is against the Windsor Owls and we’ll see if they decide to start off utilizing that effective press. Hillsboro welcomes Windsor to their home court on January 7th at 7:00 p.m.
-Written By Ryleigh Hindle of Hillsboro High School
