Hillsboro earns FAC win over Lady Panthers

HILLSBORO — Trailing for only a few moments Wednesday night in their Frontier Athletic Conference game, the Hillsboro Lady Indians defeated the Miami Trace Lady Panthers, 58-56 at HHS.

On two occasions Wednesday night, the Lady Indians held double-figure leads, with an 11-point the lead at the 1:15 mark of the first quarter, and a 10-point lead with 40 seconds left in the second quarter.

Though the Lady Panthers battled back and took the lead for a total of less than two minutes, the Lady Indians regained the lead with 2:47 left in the third and didn’t trail for the remainder of the game, as they eventually earned the two-point win.

“We haven't had a game out of touch yet,” Hillsboro head coach Heather Storer said. “We've competed in every single game, and just the ability to get over that hump is kind of what we've been preaching. We can go one direction or the other. We can continue to be right there every game, or you can fight through and get on the other side of that and getting on the other side of that tonight hopefully takes us off and back in the right track.

“Our girls’ ability to compete this year has been off the charts. We fight through adversity really well. It doesn't matter if the game is going good for us or the other way around. The girls are fighting through and being ultra competitive, and that's kind of the name of our game this year. Be aggressive, be competitive, and that's what keeps the game going for us.”

Hillsboro was first to score in the FAC contest with a 3-pointer from Rylie Scott, and they built an early 5-0 lead with a basket from Peighton Bledsoe. Scott ended the game with 10 points, and Bledsoe totaled 12 points in the win.

MTHS answered with a two-point basket, only to see the Lady Indians extend their lead to 8-2 with a 3-pointer by Addyson Miles, who totaled seven points. Hillsboro’s lead increased to eight points when Blake Herdman drove to the lane to score two points at the 4:49 mark for a 10-2 Lady Indians lead.

MTHS came back with a 3-pointer by Zoey Grooms with 4:17 left in the first quarter, but HHS answered with six consecutive points from the 3:37 mark to the 1:15 mark of the first frame with a jumper from the corner by Kobie Miles, a rebound and fast-break layup from Bledsoe, and a basket in the paint from Kyra Boyd for an 11-point lead at 16-5. Miles finished the game with eight points.

MTHS cut the Hillsboro lead down to six points at the end of the first with five points scored by Jessee Stewart, including a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the 16-10 score. Stewart led MTHS with 20 points.

Hillsboro outscored Miami Trace 12-10 in the second quarter, though it was Miami Trace who began the second-quarter scoring with a free throw, cutting Hillsboro’s lead down to five points.

The Lady Indians answered with a 3-pointer from Tylee Davis, and following a basket by MTHS, Davis again scored points, this time driving to the basket for two points and a 21-13 Hillsboro lead with 5:01 left in the second frame. Davis led Hillsboro with 17 points in the win.

After the Lady Panthers added another two points, Davis scored Hillsboro’s sixth consecutive point, this time stealing the ball and going to the hoop with 4:18 left in the quarter. HHS then added another basket, as Bledsoe sank a free throw for a 24-15 score.

“Tylee Davis kind of broke out and had a great game tonight with 17, followed up with Peighton with 12 and Rylie with 10,” Storer said. “That's probably Davis's best game of the year so far. She's a kid that we've been really excited about all summer, you know, seeing her on the floor and just getting her up to tune and varsity speed.

“This is game five for her, so I think she's starting to get a little bit more comfortable. I thought that we did a really nice job of beating Trace off the dribble, and that's kind of her forte. Her being able to expose that and go at it and work hard and finish, especially in the second half, was key.”

The two teams continued to trade points, with Hillsboro ending their second-quarter scoring with a basket by Bledsoe, and later another two points from Davis, with Hillsboro eventually leading Miami Trace 28-20 at halftime.

By the end of the third quarter, Hillsboro led Miami Trace 41-36, though the Lady Panthers outscored HHS 10-2 from the start of the third to the 4:37 mark, leaving the score tied at 30-30.

HHS took the lead back with a free throw made by Bledsoe with 4:06 left in the quarter, and HHS trailed for the first and only time in the game when Stewart put MTHS ahead with a jumper at the around the 3:00 mark for a 32-31 Lady Panther lead.

Hillsboro had the answer once again as Kobie Miles made a jump shot, followed by a 3-pointer and layup from Davis with 1:49 left in the third, giving the Lady Indians a 38-32 advantage. MTHS scored four straight points, but HHS scored the final three points of the third with a third-point play by Scott for the five-point advantage at 41-36.

“Trace has got some shooters, so we knew that they were going to eventually start hitting some shots,” Storer said. “They missed quite a few early. Of course, they're ultra competitive just like us, and they're going to be all over the floor. They're not going to give up and make anything easy on us.

“I think we gave them too much in the third quarter. They had a lot of easy layups out of transition against us, and we kind of reined it back in, in the fourth quarter.”

Miami Trace head coach Kayla Dettwiller also spoke about the game.

“I’m really proud of the girls’ effort that they had,” Dettwiller said. “I thought they fought from the tipoff to the end of the game. We told them last night in practice, we're going to have to be gritty, we’re going to have to be tough to work hard for 32 minutes, and I thought the girls came out and they did that.

“We got in a hole early on and had to expend a lot of energy to get back into the game. We’d get a lead and then we'd give up a bucket or two, and then we were just expending the energy to get back into the lead or get back in. I think that just took a toll over the course of the game.

“We're really young,” Dettwiller continued. “We started two freshmen, a sophomore, a senior and a junior tonight. We know we've got a lot of learning to do. We're seeing growth every day from the kids, and they're learning to play together. This team's going to build a lot of chemistry over the next couple of weeks.”

There was more excitement ahead in the final eight minutes, as the fourth quarter saw HHS lead by as many as seven points with 4:47 left in the game to the score being tied at 53 with 1:40 left in the quarter. In that span for HHS, Scott made a one-handed shot, Bledsoe made a free throw, Addyson Miles sank a 3-pointer, Bledsoe made a 3-pointer, Addyson Miles made a free throw and Kobie Miles sank a two-point basket, to see the score eventually sitting at 53 points each with 1:40 remaining in regulation.

Hillsboro broke the tie and didn’t lose the lead for the rest of the game as Davis had a three-point play with 58.2 left on the scoreboard, and Kobie Miles made two free throws to complete the scoring for the Lady Indians.

Hillsboro’s win moves them to 1-1 in the FAC and 2-3 overall. MTHS is now 1-2 in the FAC and 2-3 overall.

Next for HHS is a road non-conference game on Thursday, Dec. 7 at Lynchburg-Clay.

BOX SCORE
MTHS    10 10 16 20 — 56
HHS    16 12 13 17 — 58

HILLSBORO (58) — P.Bledsoe 3 (1) 3-6 12, K.Miles 3 (0) 2-2 8, R.Scott 3 (1) 1-1 10, T.Davis 5 (2) 1-4 17, A.Miles 0 (2) 1-2 7, B.Herdman 1 (0) 0-0 2, K.Boyd 1 (0) 0-0 2. TOTALS: 16 (6) 8-15 58.

MIAMI TRACE (56) — E.Robinette 1 (0) 0-0 2, G.Lovett 2 (0) 4-6 8, J.Stewart 7 (1) 3-4 20, L.Guess 5 (0) 2-4 12, R.Vincent 5 (0) 1-5 11, Z.Grooms 0 (1) 0-0 3. TOTALS: 20 (2) 10-19 56.