Hillsboro's 16th win puts them in sectional finals
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
CHILLICOTHE — Win No. 16 for the Hillsboro Lady Indians might have been the sweetest yet, as the win advanced them in the Division II SE District Sectional Tournament Thursday by a 44-35 score over the Jackson Ironladies.
The win at Southeastern High School, in the sectional semifinals, showed just what HHS was made of, because even though they won by nine points, twice the Ironladies got to within one possession of tying the score in the second half.
HHS (16-7) ended the third with a 27-26 lead, but in the fourth they went back-and-forth with the Ironladies, eventually pulling away with clutch free throw shooting and stingy defense to move on to the next round of the postseason.
"We got off to a sluggish start. I don't know about them, but we've been practicing here and there for the last two weeks. We really only had one game in between there," HHS head coach JR Moberly said. "It was something I was worried about, but we did a good job toward the end of the second quarter to try to fight our way out of that.
"We picked up our intensity in the second half, and we made some mistakes because of it, but I felt like we had to play at that level to get our energy back up."
This is the 14th win for the HHS program in Division II SE District Sectional round in the program's history, as they now will face South Central Ohio League foe Chillicothe on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Zane Trace High School for the sectional title. CHS defeated Waverly on Thursday by a 64-42 score to advance.
"Chillicothe is a good basketball team, co-champs in the league and the number-one seed," Moberly said. "We're excited for the opportunity to go again and see if we get them. I thought we played well for about two and a half quarters at their place late in the year, but they were better that night. Maybe we can come out on the other end this time."
HHS split the season series with the Lady Cavaliers, winning their SCOL opener by a 50-36 score in December. In January, HHS lost to the Lady Cavaliers, 59-55.
The last time the Lady Indians won a sectional title in the DIvision II SE District Tournament was in 1993, a team that had 16 wins that season.
Fast forward 22 years later, and the Lady Indians took the first step toward possibly achieving that feat, though that first step didn't happen in the first quarter, as the Lady Indians trailed 11-6 after the opening eight minutes.
By the time the second quarter ended, HHS trailed by two points at 22-19, but the second half … that belonged to Hillsboro, the "home team" on the scoreboard, and from there, the game was theirs as well.
[[In-content Ad]]As for that first half, Kirsten Juillerat and Hannah Kibler combined for the six points by HHS in the first quarter, and in the second, a 3-pointer by Tyeika Cumberland with 2:09 left in the half brought HHS to within one point of JHS, 18-17.
Kaylynn Bell put HHS ahead with two free throws at 1:22 in the second, but the quarter ended with four straight points by the Ironladies, leading to their three-point advantage. Bell led the Lady Indians with 16 points.
The Lady Indians started the third with a run of eight consecutive points, which began with two fast break baskets by Trista Rhodes, including a steal for a bucket with 4:58 on the clock to put the Lady Indians in front, 23-22.
After that basket, though they cut it close, the now 16-win Lady Indians never relinquished the lead.
Following those baskets the senior Rhodes, junior Madison Snyder scored two points while being fouled in the paint and later followed that up with two free throws with 3:24 left in the third for a five-point HHS advantage at 27-22. Snyder totaled eight points in the win.
Jackson called a timeout and proceeded to end the third with four straight points to make it a one-point game entering the fourth frame.
The fourth saw HHS build a nine-point lead with 4:02 on the clock with points from Snyder, Madi Marsh, Bell and Kibler for a 36-27 score.
"I can't say enough about the job Hannah Kibler did (Thursday). The girl that she was guarding, (Rebekah Green) from Jackson, is really good. She's a nice player," Moberly said. "Hannah got a lot of help in the second half – Madi, Kaylynn and Trista
all came up to help her – but Hannah did a super job on her and she stepped up on the offensive end, too.
"That was big for Hannah. She made some big baskets early that kept us around and two huge free throws late in the game."
JHS came back with seven straight points, including five points from the free-throw line by Green, along with a jumper by Kacee Jenkins to bring the Ironladies within two points of tying the game with 1:52 on the clock. That ended up being the lone field goal of the quarter for JHS.
Green led all scorers with 18 points, followed by Jenkins with 12 points.
That's when HHS responded with four free throw conversions by Bell to push their lead back to six, and after one free throw by JHS, Kibler (who totaled 10 points) and Bell combined for three more free-throw conversions for the nine-point win.
"I'm real pleased with the effort all of the kids gave. All of the kids, our JV kids, have been done for a week now, but they are coming out every day and battling our varsity kids," Moberly said. "You can't prepare for tournament games without a contribution from everybody. They may not have gotten on the floor (Thursday), but they did a lot to help us get ready for this."
The win at Southeastern High School, in the sectional semifinals, showed just what HHS was made of, because even though they won by nine points, twice the Ironladies got to within one possession of tying the score in the second half.
HHS (16-7) ended the third with a 27-26 lead, but in the fourth they went back-and-forth with the Ironladies, eventually pulling away with clutch free throw shooting and stingy defense to move on to the next round of the postseason.
"We got off to a sluggish start. I don't know about them, but we've been practicing here and there for the last two weeks. We really only had one game in between there," HHS head coach JR Moberly said. "It was something I was worried about, but we did a good job toward the end of the second quarter to try to fight our way out of that.
"We picked up our intensity in the second half, and we made some mistakes because of it, but I felt like we had to play at that level to get our energy back up."
This is the 14th win for the HHS program in Division II SE District Sectional round in the program's history, as they now will face South Central Ohio League foe Chillicothe on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Zane Trace High School for the sectional title. CHS defeated Waverly on Thursday by a 64-42 score to advance.
"Chillicothe is a good basketball team, co-champs in the league and the number-one seed," Moberly said. "We're excited for the opportunity to go again and see if we get them. I thought we played well for about two and a half quarters at their place late in the year, but they were better that night. Maybe we can come out on the other end this time."
HHS split the season series with the Lady Cavaliers, winning their SCOL opener by a 50-36 score in December. In January, HHS lost to the Lady Cavaliers, 59-55.
The last time the Lady Indians won a sectional title in the DIvision II SE District Tournament was in 1993, a team that had 16 wins that season.
Fast forward 22 years later, and the Lady Indians took the first step toward possibly achieving that feat, though that first step didn't happen in the first quarter, as the Lady Indians trailed 11-6 after the opening eight minutes.
By the time the second quarter ended, HHS trailed by two points at 22-19, but the second half … that belonged to Hillsboro, the "home team" on the scoreboard, and from there, the game was theirs as well.
[[In-content Ad]]As for that first half, Kirsten Juillerat and Hannah Kibler combined for the six points by HHS in the first quarter, and in the second, a 3-pointer by Tyeika Cumberland with 2:09 left in the half brought HHS to within one point of JHS, 18-17.
Kaylynn Bell put HHS ahead with two free throws at 1:22 in the second, but the quarter ended with four straight points by the Ironladies, leading to their three-point advantage. Bell led the Lady Indians with 16 points.
The Lady Indians started the third with a run of eight consecutive points, which began with two fast break baskets by Trista Rhodes, including a steal for a bucket with 4:58 on the clock to put the Lady Indians in front, 23-22.
After that basket, though they cut it close, the now 16-win Lady Indians never relinquished the lead.
Following those baskets the senior Rhodes, junior Madison Snyder scored two points while being fouled in the paint and later followed that up with two free throws with 3:24 left in the third for a five-point HHS advantage at 27-22. Snyder totaled eight points in the win.
Jackson called a timeout and proceeded to end the third with four straight points to make it a one-point game entering the fourth frame.
The fourth saw HHS build a nine-point lead with 4:02 on the clock with points from Snyder, Madi Marsh, Bell and Kibler for a 36-27 score.
"I can't say enough about the job Hannah Kibler did (Thursday). The girl that she was guarding, (Rebekah Green) from Jackson, is really good. She's a nice player," Moberly said. "Hannah got a lot of help in the second half – Madi, Kaylynn and Trista
all came up to help her – but Hannah did a super job on her and she stepped up on the offensive end, too.
"That was big for Hannah. She made some big baskets early that kept us around and two huge free throws late in the game."
JHS came back with seven straight points, including five points from the free-throw line by Green, along with a jumper by Kacee Jenkins to bring the Ironladies within two points of tying the game with 1:52 on the clock. That ended up being the lone field goal of the quarter for JHS.
Green led all scorers with 18 points, followed by Jenkins with 12 points.
That's when HHS responded with four free throw conversions by Bell to push their lead back to six, and after one free throw by JHS, Kibler (who totaled 10 points) and Bell combined for three more free-throw conversions for the nine-point win.
"I'm real pleased with the effort all of the kids gave. All of the kids, our JV kids, have been done for a week now, but they are coming out every day and battling our varsity kids," Moberly said. "You can't prepare for tournament games without a contribution from everybody. They may not have gotten on the floor (Thursday), but they did a lot to help us get ready for this."