Hillsboro unable to keep 1st-half lead; fall to East Clinton

The Hillsboro Lady Indians played a solid first half by building a five-point lead once the first 16 minutes of play expired from the home scoreboard at Hillsboro High School. The final two quarters didn’t fare too well for the hosts, as they lost a South Central Ohio League game to the visiting East Clinton Lady Astros, 53-44 Saturday night.

Hillsboro’s loss on their home court saw them held to 18 points combined in the second half, as the Lady Astros didn’t let senior Madison Snyder get a clean shot all night, as she was double- and triple-teamed nearly every time she gained possession of the basketball.

With that said, Snyder still led all scorers with a game-high 21 points. In the loss to the Lady Astros, Snyder tallied nine two-point baskets and was 3-of-4 from the free-throw line.

“Madison gave a good effort (Saturday), played hard and had some good numbers,” HHS head coach JR Moberly said. “That’s what you get from Maddie every night. We are happy with her effort, especially being the focal point of the East Clinton defense.

“She did a good job finishing. Give East Clinton credit, they did a nice job of getting after Maddie, made it difficult for us to get the basketball and made it difficult for her to do anything when she got the basketball. We see a lot of that, and East Clinton did a good job of executing that.”

For the first frame, the Lady Indians (1-8, 1-14) played well offensively, scoring 15 points, but the Lady Astros equaled that feat, scoring 15 points of their own, leaving the opening frame tied after eight minutes of basketball.

In the opening quarter, Hillsboro had two 3-pointers from Lana Grover, along with a trey by Kristin Jamieson. There were also four points scored by Snyder and two points by Madi Marsh.

Jamieson finished the game with nine points.

The Lady Indians came back with an 11-point second quarter, while their defense held EC to six points. Jamieson and Snyder each scored four points in the quarter, while Grover added one point from the free-throw line and Taylor Chaney added two points for what amounted to a 26-21 halftime advantage.

The second half saw the Lady Astros lift off for 21 points, while holding HHS to nine points, as six of those points came from Snyder and two by Natalie Sullivan. HHS scored nine more points in the fourth, while EC scored 11.

EC was led in scoring Paige Lilly with 14 points and Logan Peterman with 13 points. Kaitlyn Durbin finished with 10 points, giving the Lady Astros three players in double figures.

HHS will play again on Wednesday at Clinton-Massie and Saturday at Miami Trace. Both are SCOL contests.