Lady Indians take Round 2 against Lady Tigers; tied for first in FAC standings

Lady Indians take Round 2 against Lady Tigers; now tied in FAC standings 

By STEPHEN FORSHA
The Highland County Press

HILLSBORO — The battle for the Frontier Athletic Conference championship got a lot closer on Saturday afternoon, as in their second meeting of the season, the Hillsboro Lady Indians defeated the McClain Lady Tigers, 53-48 at Hillsboro High School. 

At McClain earlier this season, it was McClain winning the first meeting 44-39 (Dec. 20), but the defending FAC champion Lady Tigers’ 22-game FAC winning streak came to an end Saturday, as HHS pulled even with McClain in the FAC standings as each team is 8-1 with both teams having one conference game remaining. 

McClain still has to face the Miami Trace Lady Panthers on Monday, Feb. 2 at MTHS in a makeup game, while Hillsboro will face the Jackson Ironladies Thursday, Feb. 12 at Jackson. If both Hillsboro and McClain win, or both lose their respective games, they will share the FAC title, and if one team wins and one team loses, the winner will be the outright champion.

Hillsboro head coach Heather Storer had many reasons to celebrate as her Lady Indians not only won the game, and are now tied for first place in the FAC standings, but she gave birth to a son on Tuesday, her and her husband’s second child. 

“Tuesday about midnight I had a baby boy, and he’s all good to go, and I was back at practice on Thursday,” Storer said. “We had practice on Thursday and Friday, and here we are. He’s at home, and I’ll be headed back there now and enjoying the win the rest of the day. It hasn't been easy, but I can’t stay away.”

Getting to those scenarios started with Saturday's game where it was the Lady Indians never trailing in the game, beginning with Hillsboro leading first with a 3-pointer by Tylee Davis with 27 seconds into the game, as HHS eventually built a 12-point lead with 2:39 left in the first quarter for a 17-5 lead. 

“It was a great day of basketball, and it is always a good day when you can defeat a league opponent like that,” Storer said. “We are as happy as we can be. These kids have fought adversity all year, and that’s what we have talked about. If you like basketball, I don’t know how you don’t love this game between us twice a year.

“This is as fun as it gets. These teams have two kids who are the top two kids in the league, then you stack them with two, three, four and five all the way down through … we do a lot of the same things, just a little bit differently, and it is fun to coach against and try to figure out each other and who is going to do something different. 

“These are as fun as it gets as a coach, and I’m blessed to have a rivalry like this and compete like this,” Storer continued. “You don’t get to do this everywhere and know the community is excited for a game like this, and the environment doesn’t get any better for the girls. I know they take it to heart, and this one meant a lot to us. We’ve battled these guys and we’ve come up short too many times, and tonight was a total gut check for these girls and we were ready to go.”

Davis led Hillsboro with 16 points, finishing with four two-point buckets, one 3-pointer, and she was 5-of-7 from the free-throw line. Davis also collected seven rebounds, three assists and three steals. 

That scoring by Hillsboro also included a 5-0 lead following a basket by senior Kobie Miles (who was celebrated pregame on Senior Day as Hillsboro’s lone senior), and MHS answered with a 3-pointer from Larah Henson, as she ended the game with five points. Miles totaled 11 points, one rebound, three assists and two steals. 

Hillsboro came back with a layup from Davis, then McClain’s Paisley Pryor answered with two points of her own for a 7-5 score with the Lady Indians still in front. Pryor totaled 23 points for McClain, making eight two-point baskets, one 3-pointer, and she was 4-of-7 from the free-throw line. 

HHS answered strongly with 10 consecutive points as the 10-0 run began with a basket by Ella Jordan, a layup from Davis, a putback bucket from Piper Wilkin and consecutive baskets in the paint from Annia Young for a 17-5 Lady Indians lead. 

Jordan totaled eight points, four rebounds and one steal. Piper Wilkin finished with four points, five rebounds (four offensive), four assists and one steal. Young ended the game with a double-double by collecting 12 points and 10 rebounds (five offensive), one assist, one steal and four blocks. 

“(Annia) is the hardest working kid in the gym. I don’t think people understand how hard she works and how bad she wants every bit that she gets and how hard she grinds for it,” Storer said. “She stays after practice, she’s in the gym, she does things that nobody sees, and the effort that kid brings, and the excitement she brings, she’s such the hype-man of the team, and she’s such a fun kid to coach.

“She’s had some really big games for us this year, and this one is unmatched. It was tough on us when she fouled out at the end, and we had to battle without her, because she owned some boards tonight. I’m super proud of that kid.”

McClain broke the run up with a bucket scored by Leah Lovett, then the final two points of the first were scored by Pryor for a 17-9 score with Hillsboro in front. Lovett ended the game with 14 points, making five two-pointers, and she went 4-of-7 from the free-throw line. 

"It's hard for us to come back when we start off in a negative deficit," McClain head coach Shania Massie said. "I mean, we were down 15 points. Both times we played them, we started off slow. It's hard. It’s hard to come back from. We didn't give up, and I’m proud of the girls’ effort. 

"Collectively as a team, we just have to make sure that we're doing the small things right."

Hillsboro ended the second frame with a five-point lead as the two teams battled on the court as each team had a putback basket to start the quarter from Young and Pryor. 

McClain cut Hillsboro’s lead to two points with a 3-pointer by Brie Cummins, followed by a  wide-open 3-pointer from the corner by Pryor for a 19-17 score with 4:48 on the clock. Parker Wilkin and Piper Wilkin followed with each making a basket, and those points were equaled with baskets by Pryor and Henson. 

Hillsboro built a five-point lead at the half as Jordan sank a 3-pointer with 6.5 left in the quarter for a 26-21 score. 

The lead for the Lady Indians in the third quarter was as low as five points with 7:04 on the clock and as high as 14 points with 3:26 remaining in the frame. 

Hillsboro started the third with eight of the first 10 points scored as Davis struck first with a jumper, and following two free throws from Pryor for the Lady Tigers, the next six points for HHS came from consecutive baskets in the paint by Young and a layup from Jordan for a 34-23 lead with 5:50 left in the quarter. 

McClain called a timeout following the basket by Jordan and a made free throw by Allie Burgess. 

The quarter continued with teams beginning to battle fouls and some foul trouble, with both teams reaching the free-throw line on multiple occasions as McClain ended the third frame with five straight points for a 41-37 Hillsboro lead, cutting Hillsboro's 14-point lead (with 3:26 left in the frame) in half. 

MHS made it a four-point game with 6:34 left in regulation as Pryor made two baskets in the paint to start the quarter, but HHS came back with four points of their own off a basket by Young following a rebound and two free throws by Davis for a 45-38 score with 5:47 remaining in the game. 

Then came many jump ball calls and an offensive foul with 5:27 on the clock by Hillsboro (drawn by McClain’s Cummins), but eventually Jordan made a free throw for HHS with 2:52 left in the game for a nine-point Hillsboro lead at 46-38. 

McClain turned it into a six-point deficit with three points from Lovett, and Hillsboro’s lead stayed from as high as eight to as low as three points as the latter part of the game saw Hillsboro finish 5-of-10 in the final 1:02 of the game from the free-throw line to keep the lead and gain the win. 

Other final totals for Hillsboro included Parker Wilkin with two points, one rebound and one assist, while teammate Taylor-Ann Scruggs totaled one steal and one block. 

Other final scoring totals for MHS included Burgess and Cummins each scoring three points, as Cummins had a 3-pointer and Burgess was 3-of-4 from the free-throw line. 

In the JV game, McClain won 12-11 in two quarters. MHS JV was led by McKenzie West with nine points. Hillsboro’s JV leading scorer was Taylor-Ann Scruggs with six points. 

Next for McClain is a FAC contest on Monday, Feb. 2 on the road at Miami Trace.

Hillsboro is scheduled to play next on Monday, Feb. 2 in a non-conference game at Waynesville. 

BOX SCORE
MHS    09 12 13 14 — 48
HHS    17 09 15 12 — 53

HILLSBORO (53) — E.Jordan 2 (0) 4-8 8, K.Miles 3 (1) 2-4 11, T.Davis 4 (1) 5-7 16, Pi.Wilkin 2 (0) 0-0 4, Pa.Wilkin 1 (0) 0-0 2, A.Young 6 (0) 0-0 12. TOTALS: 18 (2) 11-19 53. 

MCCLAIN (48) — L.Henson 1 (1) 0-2 5, P.Pryor 8 (1) 4-7 23, A.Burgess 0 (0) 3-4 3, B.Cummins 0 (1) 0-0 3, L.Lovett 5 (0) 4-7 14. TOTALS: 14 (3) 11-20 48.