Hillsboro falls in OT against Clinton-Massie
The saying in sports where every inch matters never was more true than on Saturday night at Hillsboro, where an over-the-line call on a converted free throw with 8.3 seconds left in overtime led to a Hillsboro Lady Indians' deficit against the Clinton-Massie Lady Falcons instead of a tied score.
The free throw made by the Lady Indians' Madison Snyder, which would have tied the game at 64, was called off by officials with the aforementioned 8.3 seconds left on the clock.
From there, the Lady Indians managed to regain possession of the ball after two free throws by the visiting Lady Falcons, only to see any hopes of tying the score ended with an offensive foul called on them (around mid-court) with 5.1 left on the scoreboard.
"We were down 16 at one point, and we did everything we had to do to give ourselves a chance to win the basketball game," HHS head coach J.R. Moberly said. "I was hoping we could finish the game in regulation, because our girls spent a lot of energy to get there.
"In the end, you can't dig a 16-point deficit and expect to win a basketball game."
The series of unfortunate events for the Lady Indians led to a 68-63 South Central Ohio League loss to the now second-place Lady Falcons, with CM now being 7-3 in the league. HHS falls to 5-5 in the SCOL, tied with the Washington Lady Blue Lions in the standings.
Clinton-Massie's win leaves them alone in second place in the SCOL, while HHS falls to third place. There is a tie at the top of the SCOL standings with Chillicothe defeating McClain, 49-44 Saturday afternoon with both teams being 8-2 in the league.
Even with all the late action in OT, the Lady Indians and Lady Falcons battled tough and played a very competitive game of basketball, starting in the first frame with CM leading the Lady Indians 10-7 after the completion of the opening eight minutes.
But for the Lady Indians, they rebounded in the second quarter, beginning with a jumper by Hannah Kibler, and following a jumper by Savannah Myers of CM (12 total points), HHS came back with five straight points, including another jumper by Kibler (Kibler totaled seven points) and three points from Madison Snyder for a 15-12 Lady Indians lead with 4:05 left in the first half.
The Lady Falcons came back to eventually tie the score at 16, and later took the lead with a layup from Miquela Santoro, who took the ball the length of the court. Santoro led all scorers with 24 points.
In fact, CM ended the first half on a 10-0 run to take an eight-point lead at 24-16.
Add in a 6-0 run by CM to start the third frame, and the Lady Falcons went on a 16-0 run, building a 30-16 advantage with 6:23 left in the third, with the run being completed by Madison Purkey with a jumper at 6:23. Purkey finished the game with 18 points.
Trista Rhodes stopped the run by CM with a free throw, but CM eventually went ahead by a 33-19 score with 4:10 left in the quarter.
HHS wasn't done just yet, as the combination of Kibler, Kaylynn Bell, Snyder and Tyeika Cumberland combined to go on an 18-6 run to end the third frame, getting back to within two points of tying CM at 39-37.
The run by HHS included two 3-pointers from Bell and one from Cumberland at the buzzer. Cumberland and Bell each finished with three 3-pointers in the game.
Bell led HHS with 17 points, followed by Snyder with 15 points and Cumberland totaled 13 points.
Hillsboro and Clinton-Massie went toe-to-toe in the fourth, but CM jumped out to a 45-39 lead following points from Myers and Purkey.
With 4:05 left in the fourth, Kirsten Juillerat sank a layup to get HHS back to within three points of CM at 49-46. Then, with 3:29 left in regulation, Cumberland sank another 3-pointer to make it a three-point deficit once again.
"Tyeika was big off the bench, and that's a really tough job to come off the bench and to be expected to make those shots ... and she did," Moberly said. "She was huge for us. She's a shooter and has done a lot of nice things for us over the past couple years, and it takes a special person to come off the bench and do what she did for us (Saturday).
"I'm happy to see that for her. She's put in a lot of time and spent a lot of time shooting the basketball, so it was great to see her have that success."
Following more points by the Lady Falcons, Bell sank two free throws and later a layup, tying the score at 53. HHS took the lead with with a free throw from Kibler, and with 1:05 left in the fourth, Juillerat made a 3-pointer of her own to push HHS ahead 57-55.
Santoro tied the game at 57 for CM with 1:03 on the clock, but HHS was there, again, to take back the lead on their home court with Bell making a free throw, followed by a layup by Rhodes, amounting to a 60-57 lead.
CM continued to not let up as well, forcing OT with a 3-pointer from Santoro while she was falling to the ground at the top of the key for what was a 60-60 score at the end of regulation.
The OT scoring began slowly, but it was Snyder who broke the tie with a free throw with 1:44 on the OT clock, but CM used defense by stealing the basketball, and turned it into offense with two fast break points by Santoro with 1:11 left.
Snyder was clutch at the free-throw line again in OT, tying the score at 62 with 58 seconds remaining, but CM's Purkey was clutch as well, making two free throws, pushing CM ahead 64-62.
With CM leading by two, Snyder was fouled by CM. At the line with 8.3 seconds left in OT, the junior made the first shot, and then made the second one as well.
But that game-tying point was overturned by the officials due to a call of a line violation in the OT period with the aforementioned 8.3 seconds on the clock in a game for SCOL positioning.
CM responded by making two free throws off shots from Hanna Duncan, then after the aforementioned offensive foul called on the Lady Indians with 5.1 on the clock in OT, CM put the game out of reach with two more free throws.
"Clinton-Massie is a good ball club, and I thought our kids competed with them for the most part," Moberly said. "We just have to figure out how to put together four complete quarters."