Lady Mustangs defend home court against Hillsboro

DODSONVILLE — The Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs fended off a strong charge by the Hillsboro Lady Indians Thursday night, defeating their Highland County counterpart, 56-51 at LCHS.

Lynchburg-Clay (3-2) trailed Hillsboro 12-9 at the end of the first quarter, though they were first to reach the scoreboard with a basket by Ella Barry 14 seconds into the game. Around the 7:00 mark, Hillsboro’s Kobie Miles tied the score at 2-2.

Miles led HHS with a career-high 23 points for the game, finishing with six two-point baskets, three 3-pointers and going 2-of-3 from the free-throw line.

“I’ll be honest, that's probably the quietest 23 points I've ever seen in my coaching career,” Hillsboro head coach Heather Storer said. “That girl is sneaky. She had a nice game. That's a kid that we're asking a lot out of this year.

“The way she's getting comfortable and settling in and playing with some of the seniors, and then adding Tylee Davis in the mix with her and those two being able to feed off each other is huge. Kobie is not a kid that typically scores 20-plus — I expect her to have 10 a night  — but for her to have 23 and step up and that way was was absolutely huge for us tonight.”

Macy Etienne put LCHS back into the lead with a 3-pointer at the 6:50 mark, only to see Hillsboro’s Tylee Davis equal the feat by knocking down a trey with 5:10 left in the first quarter, tying the score at 5-5.

Davis finished with 14 points for HHS, while for LCHS, Etienne totaled 11 points in the win.

From there, the Lady Mustangs took the lead back with a layup by Addison West — who totaled 11 points — but from the 4:25 mark to the 3:18 mark of the first, Hillsboro took the lead with a 3-pointer and layup by Miles, plus points from Blake Herdman for a 12-7 lead. LCHS scored two final points in the first with a basket by West, as the shot with 2:06 left in the first were the final points scored in the frame.

By the time the second frame ended and halftime arrived, Lynchburg-Clay took a 23-18 lead, outscoring the Lady Indians 14-6.

“it was just tight there in that first quarter. We had to adjust,” Lynchburg-Clay head coach Whitney Lewis said. “You’ve just got to adjust to the physicality that Hillsboro is going to bring and their kind of intensity. I thought our girls responded really well to that, and I'm really proud of them. That's kind of the difference in that game. You know, that second quarter, we woke up a little bit, just again, that first quarter was a little slow and out of sorts for us. Give credit to Hillsboro, because their defense was part of all of that.”

LCHS in the second trailed by as many as five points as HHS had Miles sink two free throws to start the second, but from there five straight points by Etienne — including a 3-pointer — lifted Lynchburg-Clay to a tie with HHS with 4:10 remaining in the first half.

Hillsboro (2-4) took the lead with 2:56 left in the second off a free throw made by Peighton Bledsoe, but the next seven points were scored by the Lady Mustangs, including a 3-pointer by Jade Massey and two baskets by Allie Waits for a 22-15 score with 37 seconds left in the quarter. Massey led LCHS with 16 points, collecting three two-point baskets, one 3-pointer, and she finished 7-of-8 from the free-throw line.  

HHS answered with a 3-pointer, and the frame ended with two points by Massey for the 23-18 score.

The third quarter saw LCHS and HHS each score 16 points, leaving the Lady Mustangs in the lead by five points at 39-34.

HHS in the third had seven points by Kobie Miles, six points from Davis, two points from Rylie Scott and Herdman made a free throw.

Lynchburg-Clay’s third quarter saw five points scored by West, Madison McMullen with four points, a 3-pointer by Mattie Magee and two points by Massey.

Both teams also scored the same number of points in the fourth frame, as HHS and LCHS each had 17 points in the final quarter.

The Lady Mustangs never trailed in the fourth quarter and led by nine points with 7:10 left in regulation following LCHS starting the fourth with a basket by McMullen and two made free throws by Massey.

As the quarter continued, HHS cut Lynchburg-Clay’s lead down to three points on three occasions, but LCHS never lost the lead as Massey made two final free throws at the game for the five-point win.

“That was a great game. It was a gritty game, two county schools going at it. Just a hard-fought game, all out,” Lewis said. “Hillsboro, there's such a tough team, they're just so scrappy, and just rough and get in there in the rebounds. I mean, if our kids did not hold that basketball, it was going to get taken. I thought we responded to that.

“The second quarter, we answered the call, and then I think that kind of turned the game around for us. Hillsboro made some runs there in the second half, and we were able to answer with some clutch free throws, and then some defensive stops when we just needed a stop. Again, I’m really proud of how hard our girls played tonight.”

LCHS had 10 points from Massey in the fourth, as she was 6-of-6 from the free-throw line, and other final-quarter scoring for LCHS included one point by Etienne, two points from West and four points by McMullen.

Hillsboro had two points from Bledsoe, seven points by Kobie Miles, one point by Scott and five points from Herdman in the fourth frame.

“I think we get tired. We don't play a lot of kids — regularly play mostly seven kids,” Storer said. “That's a lot, and it is a lot to ask kids to play that quick on both ends of the floor. I think we're getting there. I think we need to be a little bit better shape to do what we need to do the whole game.

“Being able to draw our press on Lynchburg tonight, they didn't handle it as well, so that was nice and kind of gave us a little bit of a break and still being able to apply pressure. Just being able to be multifaceted in what we do defensively and work hard offensively and push the tempo is key to our game.”

More final scoring totals for LCHS included Waits with three, Joslyn Rockey with two, McMullen with eight and Barry with five.

More HHS final scoring included Herdman with eight points, Bledsoe with three points and Scott with three points.

BOX SCORE
HHS    12 06 16 17 — 51
LCHS    09 14 16 17 — 56

LYNCHBURG-CLAY (56) — M.Etienne 1 (2) 3-4 11, A.Waits 0 (1) 0-0 3, A.West 2 (1) 4-6 11, J.Massey 3 (1) 7-8 16, J.Rockey 1 (0) 0-0 2, M.McMullen 4 (0) 0-0 8, E.Barry 1 (1) 0-0 5. TOTALS: 12 (6) 14-18 56.

HILLSBORO (51) — P.Bledsoe 1 (0) 1-2 3, K.Miles 6 (3) 2-3 23, R.Scott 1 (0) 1-2 3, T.Davis 4 (2) 0-2 14, A.Miles 0 (0) 0-2 0, B.Herdman 2 (1) 1-2 8. TOTALS: 14 (6) 5-13 51.