Indians swept in season series by Miami Trace
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
HILLSBORO — Nothing comes easy when it pertains to South Central Ohio League basketball, and that was evident Tuesday night at Hillsboro High School.
Entering the league game against Miami Trace, a win by the host Indians would have given them a comfortable margin in the league standings, but history repeated itself as the Miami Trace Panthers defeated the Hillsboro squad for the second time this season at 55-50.
In their first meeting of the season at the "Panther Pit," the Indians fell 65-58, as MT (5-4, 7-7) has won the past three meetings against the Indians, dating back to a win against HHS last season 79-71 at MTHS.
"It was a nice thing to see our kids come together again in this game," MT head coach John Stauffer said. "Having some injuries (Trevor Smith, Zack Anderson), we've practiced varsity by themselves, and though only six or seven play, it's taken all 10 to get where we are."
This win, like the previous two wins, has moved all the teams a tad bit closer to the Tribe in the league standings with HHS sitting at 7-2 in the league (11-4 overall) with three games on left on the schedule with Madison-Plains on Friday and McClain on Saturday, both road games. The final SCOL game will be on Feb. 17 when the Indians host Clinton-Massie, who is one game out of first place in the SCOL with a league mark of 6-3.
Prince said if his team can't find the fire to get ready for the weekend slate, then "I'm not doing my job."
"I think Miami Trace had confidence from the first time they beat us," HHS head coach Brett Prince said. "Their confidence grew to another level when they came out and jumped to a 10-point lead after the first quarter.
"When you score 19 points, and 14 are point-blank layups, and the other six are threes … they executed, we didn't guard and those 19 points were the effect of that."
The Indians do still have first place in the SCOL, with a one-game advantage.
"We gave ourselves a two-game advantage, so we had a game to spare, but we have to finish the deal," Prince said. "It starts Friday at Madison-Plains."
After trailing for the entire game, except when the score was tied at two early in the first quarter, the Indians didn't hold the lead until the 1:08 mark of the third quarter, overcoming a deficit as much as 10 points on two separate occasions in the second and third quarters, at 40-39 off a layup (through the MT defense in the paint) by Tyrand Cumberland.
Cumberland finished with nine points, followed by Jarrod Hart with eight. Chase Gilliland and Tyia Cumberland each scored seven points.
MT regained the lead 35 seconds later, but with four seconds left on the third quarter clock, a layup from Devanté Ames put the Indians ahead 42-41, with help from a lob pass by Gilliland to end the third frame. Ames led HHS with a team-high 14 points.
"Our message at the half was to be more aggressive on the defensive end," Prince said. "We tried to back off a couple of their bigger guys … we wanted to force their post players to shoot jump shots. Unfortunately, we had guys chasing screens.
"We wanted to take away their simple reverses, and the result was getting ourselves back into the game … also, the foul numbers completely flip-flopped in the second half, and I'm going to stay away from that one."
The fourth wasn't as kind to HHS, being outscored 14-8 in the final eight minutes. MT was 6-of-10 from the free-throw line in the quarter, making four in a row with 29 and 19 seconds left on the clock.
The first two free throws in that span by Blake Baldwin put the Panthers ahead by three points at 53-50. Unable to score points or grab the ensuing rebound, the Indians were forced to foul, and MT took advantage with two more free-throw conversions, this time by Cedric Pettiford with 19 seconds left on the clock. Pettiford finished with 18 points. Brandlyn Decker followed with 14, and Baldwin scored 12 points for the Panthers.
[[In-content Ad]]How did the Indians get to that point in the fourth?
MT opened the final quarter with points from Pettiford, but the Indians followed with put-back points by Cumberland. MT responded with four straight points, and HHS answered with a layup between two defenders by Táron Captain, putting HHS down by one point (47-46) with 5:00 left on the clock.
HHS then took the lead by three points at 50-47 with points from Ames and Cumberland with 2:26 left in regulation.
Then everything went downhill for the Indians as MT ended the game on a 8-0 run in the final 2:14 of regulation.
As for the first half, the Indians trailed by 10 points after eight minutes as MT had leads of 6-2, 15-6 and 19-9.
"We came out a bit soft, and it carried over. We fought ourselves back into the game in the second half, fought ourselves into the lead, but at the end of the game, we had communication issues, and we just didn't get the job done at the end," Prince said.
The second quarter was in favor of the Indians as they outscored MT 13-9. Gilliland sank a 3-pointer to open the second but was answered by Baldwin, putting HHS down 10. HHS continued to chip away at the MT lead, cutting it as low as three points when Ames hit a free-throw with 1:00 left in the first half.
In freshman play, HHS defeated MT 54-21. Leading HHS was Logan Lesley with 15 points, followed by Alex Vanzant with 12.
In the JV game, HHS won 39-24. Leading HHS was Reese Leibreich with nine points, followed by Zach Young with eight and Lattrell Haithcock with seven.
BOX SCORE
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MT 19 09 13 14 — 55
HHS 09 13 20 08 — 50
INDIVIDUAL STATS
MT (55)
B.Baldwin 1 (2) 4-4 12
M.Pettiford 1 (0) 0-0 2
C.Pettiford 7 (0) 4-4 18
B.Decker 7 (0) 0-2 14
B.Ward 3 (1) 0-2 9
TOTALS: 19 (3) 8-12 55
HHS (50)
Tyr.Cumberland 4 (0) 1-2 9
D.Ames 5 (1) 1-2 14
J.Hart 3 (0) 2-4 8
C.Gilliland 1 (1) 2-2 7
T.Captain 1 (0) 0-0 2
C.Cundiff 0 (1) 0-0 3
Tyi.Cumberland 2 (0) 3-3 7
TOTALS: 16 (3) 9-13 50
Entering the league game against Miami Trace, a win by the host Indians would have given them a comfortable margin in the league standings, but history repeated itself as the Miami Trace Panthers defeated the Hillsboro squad for the second time this season at 55-50.
In their first meeting of the season at the "Panther Pit," the Indians fell 65-58, as MT (5-4, 7-7) has won the past three meetings against the Indians, dating back to a win against HHS last season 79-71 at MTHS.
"It was a nice thing to see our kids come together again in this game," MT head coach John Stauffer said. "Having some injuries (Trevor Smith, Zack Anderson), we've practiced varsity by themselves, and though only six or seven play, it's taken all 10 to get where we are."
This win, like the previous two wins, has moved all the teams a tad bit closer to the Tribe in the league standings with HHS sitting at 7-2 in the league (11-4 overall) with three games on left on the schedule with Madison-Plains on Friday and McClain on Saturday, both road games. The final SCOL game will be on Feb. 17 when the Indians host Clinton-Massie, who is one game out of first place in the SCOL with a league mark of 6-3.
Prince said if his team can't find the fire to get ready for the weekend slate, then "I'm not doing my job."
"I think Miami Trace had confidence from the first time they beat us," HHS head coach Brett Prince said. "Their confidence grew to another level when they came out and jumped to a 10-point lead after the first quarter.
"When you score 19 points, and 14 are point-blank layups, and the other six are threes … they executed, we didn't guard and those 19 points were the effect of that."
The Indians do still have first place in the SCOL, with a one-game advantage.
"We gave ourselves a two-game advantage, so we had a game to spare, but we have to finish the deal," Prince said. "It starts Friday at Madison-Plains."
After trailing for the entire game, except when the score was tied at two early in the first quarter, the Indians didn't hold the lead until the 1:08 mark of the third quarter, overcoming a deficit as much as 10 points on two separate occasions in the second and third quarters, at 40-39 off a layup (through the MT defense in the paint) by Tyrand Cumberland.
Cumberland finished with nine points, followed by Jarrod Hart with eight. Chase Gilliland and Tyia Cumberland each scored seven points.
MT regained the lead 35 seconds later, but with four seconds left on the third quarter clock, a layup from Devanté Ames put the Indians ahead 42-41, with help from a lob pass by Gilliland to end the third frame. Ames led HHS with a team-high 14 points.
"Our message at the half was to be more aggressive on the defensive end," Prince said. "We tried to back off a couple of their bigger guys … we wanted to force their post players to shoot jump shots. Unfortunately, we had guys chasing screens.
"We wanted to take away their simple reverses, and the result was getting ourselves back into the game … also, the foul numbers completely flip-flopped in the second half, and I'm going to stay away from that one."
The fourth wasn't as kind to HHS, being outscored 14-8 in the final eight minutes. MT was 6-of-10 from the free-throw line in the quarter, making four in a row with 29 and 19 seconds left on the clock.
The first two free throws in that span by Blake Baldwin put the Panthers ahead by three points at 53-50. Unable to score points or grab the ensuing rebound, the Indians were forced to foul, and MT took advantage with two more free-throw conversions, this time by Cedric Pettiford with 19 seconds left on the clock. Pettiford finished with 18 points. Brandlyn Decker followed with 14, and Baldwin scored 12 points for the Panthers.
[[In-content Ad]]How did the Indians get to that point in the fourth?
MT opened the final quarter with points from Pettiford, but the Indians followed with put-back points by Cumberland. MT responded with four straight points, and HHS answered with a layup between two defenders by Táron Captain, putting HHS down by one point (47-46) with 5:00 left on the clock.
HHS then took the lead by three points at 50-47 with points from Ames and Cumberland with 2:26 left in regulation.
Then everything went downhill for the Indians as MT ended the game on a 8-0 run in the final 2:14 of regulation.
As for the first half, the Indians trailed by 10 points after eight minutes as MT had leads of 6-2, 15-6 and 19-9.
"We came out a bit soft, and it carried over. We fought ourselves back into the game in the second half, fought ourselves into the lead, but at the end of the game, we had communication issues, and we just didn't get the job done at the end," Prince said.
The second quarter was in favor of the Indians as they outscored MT 13-9. Gilliland sank a 3-pointer to open the second but was answered by Baldwin, putting HHS down 10. HHS continued to chip away at the MT lead, cutting it as low as three points when Ames hit a free-throw with 1:00 left in the first half.
In freshman play, HHS defeated MT 54-21. Leading HHS was Logan Lesley with 15 points, followed by Alex Vanzant with 12.
In the JV game, HHS won 39-24. Leading HHS was Reese Leibreich with nine points, followed by Zach Young with eight and Lattrell Haithcock with seven.
BOX SCORE
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MT 19 09 13 14 — 55
HHS 09 13 20 08 — 50
INDIVIDUAL STATS
MT (55)
B.Baldwin 1 (2) 4-4 12
M.Pettiford 1 (0) 0-0 2
C.Pettiford 7 (0) 4-4 18
B.Decker 7 (0) 0-2 14
B.Ward 3 (1) 0-2 9
TOTALS: 19 (3) 8-12 55
HHS (50)
Tyr.Cumberland 4 (0) 1-2 9
D.Ames 5 (1) 1-2 14
J.Hart 3 (0) 2-4 8
C.Gilliland 1 (1) 2-2 7
T.Captain 1 (0) 0-0 2
C.Cundiff 0 (1) 0-0 3
Tyi.Cumberland 2 (0) 3-3 7
TOTALS: 16 (3) 9-13 50