Hillsboro’s close play not enough in loss to Chillicothe
The Hillsboro Lady Indians played close against a stronger and taller Chillicothe Lady Cavaliers team, but in the end the host Lady Indians fell a few points short of the Lady Cavs, falling by a 48-43 score in Frontier Athletic Conference play.
The loss was not for lack of effort by the Lady Indians (2-7, 8-12) as they overcame a physically played and at times intense contest, where both teams had a technical foul against them. Even in the first frame, it was evident the game was going to be close throughout as HHS trailed by a 15-6 score after eight minutes as Madi Marsh, Kelsey Burns and Kaley Burns all contributed to the opening quarter scoring. Marsh led HHS with 14 points.
“We had some breakdowns in the first half defensively and also missed some shots we should have made,” HHS head coach JR Moberly said. “In the second half, I didn’t make the adjustments we needed to give us an opportunity to do what we needed to do. I need to do a better job in the second half.
“Our kids battled (Chillicothe), and I felt like we played a real nice basketball game. We executed the game plan well for the most part, but (CHS) took advantage of every breakdown we had.”
In the second quarter, the Lady Indians added 19 points to their overall total, beginning with a 3-pointer from Kayden Watson (who totaled 11 points vs. Chillicothe) at the 6:57 mark of the quarter, and two minutes later Lana Grover sank two free throws for the Lady Indians for a 19-14 deficit for HHS.
Following those points, Kelsey Burns scored two points on a layup for a 19-16 score, forcing the Lady Cavs to call a timeout with 4:42 left in the first half. Kelsey Burns finished with six points for HHS. Following the timeout, CHS answered with two points, but HHS was there with a bucket from Marsh.
The Lady Cavaliers answered with a 3-pointer at the 3:58 mark, but HHS had a jumper from Josie Hopkins (who finished with five points) and then a three-point play by Marsh for a 24-23 deficit with 2:46 left in the second quarter. Following two points by the visitors, Marsh scored the final two points of the first half with two free throw conversions at the 2:16 mark for a 26-25 halftime score in favor of CHS.
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Neither team broke double-digit scoring in the third with CHS winning the quarter at 9-5, but for HHS, Kayden Watson sank another 3-pointer, while Kelsey Burns scored two points as well. In the third, HHS got to within one point once again at the 2:33 mark following the aforementioned 3-pointer by Watson for a 31-30 score. Eventually, CHS led 35-30 when the quarter came to a close.
In the fourth frame, HHS scored 13 more points with five points by Watson (including her third 3-pointer of the game), along with three points by Hopkins, one point by Grover and two points each from Marsh and Kaley Burns, as she totaled four points in the game. For the entire final frame, CHS also scored 13 points.
HHS was out-rebounded in the game, 47-34.
“With Natalie (Sullivan) out, we are going to run into a lot of teams being taller than us, but I thought we tried to do a good job of fronting the post, but every time we had that breakdown, (Chillicothe) took advantage of it,” Moberly said. “Our kids played hard and got after it, and they always do.
“We had a lot of contributions from a lot of kids. We ran a lot of players out there, and we did force (CHS) into a 2-3 zone for that reason.”
Chillicothe was led by Shawnice Smith with 19 points. For HHS, Grover and Marsh each had five rebounds.
“Maddy and Lana each had a real nice basketball game, and Kelsey did a good job guarding her post player,” Moberly said. “We got some good effort from a lot of kids, but just not enough to finish it off.”
Next for the Lady Indians is an away non-conference game Feb. 7 at Waverly.