Fayetteville controls pace of game in Hillsboro loss

The Hillsboro Lady Indians played their fourth game of the season Monday night, but never got into any rhythm, and the visiting Fayetteville Lady Rockets controlled all aspects of the non-league game to send the Lady Indians to a 62-38 loss.

Hillsboro struggled in the first quarter with their rebounding and holding onto the basketball. HHS gave the visitors extra chances at shots as they couldn’t gain offensive rebounds, or they just were forced into turnovers, leading to a deficit of 18-4 to Fayetteville after the first frame.

“I don’t think we played with a lot of energy,” HHS head coach JR Moberly said. “I think we could have played with a lot more energy, and we really didn’t pick up our intensity and play with intensity until the fourth quarter.

“We gave up some easy baskets trying to gamble and bet back into it, but I thought we played better when we played harder in the fourth quarter.”

Hillsboro (0-4) had just one field goal in the opening quarter, that being a jump from Riley Moberly, and the other two points came from free throws from Natalie Sullivan and Madison Snyder.

Snyder ended up leading the Lady Indians with 17 points, with all but four of her points coming in the fourth quarter.

Moberly finished with nine points in the loss.

The Lady Indians came back with a better second quarter, outscoring the Lady Rockets, 10-6, but still trailed by 10 points at the halftime break at 24-14.

For Fayetteville in the first half, they had Samantha Murphy score nine of her game-high 34 points in the the first two quarters, including two 3-pointers in the frame.

In the second half, the Lady Rockets scored 19 points in each of the final two quarters, while keeping the Lady Indians to just six points in the third, as those were scored off 3-pointers by Moberly and Kristin Jamieson. HHS scored 18 points in the fourth frame.

The fourth quarter saw Snyder dominate with her 13 points, followed by scoring from teammates Hanna Breeden with two and a 3-pointer from Lana Grover.

But on the flip side, the second half for the Lady Rockets was better with Murphy scoring 13 points in the third and 12 more points in the final eight minutes of regulation.

Moberly said he hopes HHS can use this game as a learning experience.

“I hope they learn effort leads to success,” Moberly said. “Where we measure that success is if you play hard, you are more likely to get there. I think we played real tentative. There were shots we could have taken and passes that could have been made and didn’t.

“I told the girls, I’m not going to yell at you for making mistakes but will yell for not playing hard.”

HHS will play at East Clinton this Wednesday night in South Central Ohio League play, and then on Saturday night, HHS will host Clinton-Massie.