Lady Indians fall in season opener to Fayetteville
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
FAYETTEVILLE — The Hillsboro Lady Indians, with a young team gaining experience on the go, impressed in the first half by holding on to a one-point lead at the half. After a rough third quarter, the Lady Indians rallied back to make the game close in the final eight minutes but left Brown County with a loss to the Fayetteville Lady Rockets to open the season.
The game had a change of venue due to a problem with the scoreboard in the high school gym, so the two teams played their non-conference game in the middle school gym, where the game went back and forth with the two teams forcing many turnovers with their defense. Though the Lady Indians held the lead at halftime and got back to within a point of the lead in the fourth frame, they lost their season opener by a 55-47 score.
“We’re real long, we’re athletic and we can do some things. We’re not real quick, but we talked about getting better angles, playing smarter instead of quicker,” HHS head coach JR Moberly said. “(Monday), I think especially offensively, we were trying to be too fast.
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“Defensively, the effort was great in the second half, and we made a lot of reads. I was really pleased with that. And I told them, they could have folded, but they didn’t. They dug in and played hard. We just came up a little short.”
Even in the losing outcome, there were still some positives to build on for the remaining 21 regular-season games on the schedule, the first being the opening two quarters of the game. After one quarter, the Lady Indians trailed by a 11-10 score after leading for most of the first frame. The second quarter, HHS outscored the Lady Rockets, 11-9, giving them a 21-20 halftime advantage.
In the opening quarter, the Lady Indians unofficially forced four straight turnovers on the first four Fayetteville possessions but only held a 2-0 lead. HHS extended their lead to 4-0 with Natalie Sullivan scoring the first four points of the game off jump shots.
Sullivan led the Lady Indians with 12 points, making six two-point baskets. In all, nine players for HHS scored points.
HHS took a six-point lead with a jumper by Ashleigh Baucom midway through the first frame, but Fayetteville came back with a 3-pointer by Taylor Cornett to cut the HHS lead in half. Cornett finished with 14 points. Leading Fayetteville was Cecilia Murphy with 20 points. Also in double figures for the Lady Rockets was Hannah Wiederhold with 15 points.
Following two more points by the hosts, the Lady Indians continued to pressure the Lady Rockets with their defense forcing more turnovers, eventually seeing Kaley Burns scoring two points for the Lady Indians with 2:47 left in the opening frame. Burns ended the game with 11 points.
The Lady Rockets had an answer by scoring the final six points of the first quarter, four of the points off turnovers, for an 11-10 lead after the opening eight minutes of the season.
HHS took and extended their lead with four points to open the second quarter, including a layup by Taylor Chaney and a put-back bucket by Sullivan for a 14-11 advantage with 6:30 on the scoreboard. As the quarter continued, the Lady Indians continued to hold on to the lead until the 3:38 mark when the Lady Rockets tied the score at 16.
Fayetteville went back ahead by two points, but HHS came back to tie the score at 18 off a put-back basket from Burns. The Lady Indians later went ahead by a 21-18 score with a jumper by Sullivan and free throw by Kelsey Burns with 2:08 left in the opening quarter. Fayetteville cut the lead to one point with a layup with under 30 seconds left in the quarter for the 21-20 halftime score.
In the third quarter, Hillsboro came out missing the same energy they played with in the first two quarters, and they suffered by being outscored, 19-8, trailing by 10 points entering the fourth quarter. The highlights for the third frame for the Lady Indians were 3-pointers by Sydney Bobbitt and Kaley Burns. The other two points for HHS in the third were scored by Madi Marsh.
“We did not get off to a good start coming out after halftime,” Moberly said. “We picked up our energy about halfway through the third quarter, late in the third quarter, but I think we just kind of burned too much to get out of the hole. The bad start to the second half was kind of the undoing of us.”
Moberly also spoke about the passing of the team, as they committed double-digit turnovers in the first half alone.
“It left a lot to be desired at times. We had 14 turnovers at halftime, and they probably had another 14 deflections,” Moberly said. “A lot of girls can make good passes, they handle the ball well, but I think some of it’s just nerves.
“It’s something that we have to improve on. We have to take better care of the basketball and get shots on our offensive possessions. I don’t know what we ended up with, but it was way too many turnovers.”
Having to play catch-up for the final eight minutes, the Lady Indians did keep battling, and they slowly cut down the lead of the Lady Rockets by converting extra chance opportunities and forcing turnovers.
A big turn of events for HHS included a 3-pointer by Bobbitt with 4:27 left in the game, followed by a jumper at the 3:48 mark from Sullivan to get within one point of Fayetteville for a 41-40 score. Fayetteville built their lead back to nine points at the 1:32 mark of the fourth, but HHS sank a 3-pointer by Lana Grover with just under a minute on the clock to get back to within six points.
The Lady Rockets responded by making four of their final six free throws to seal the win. The final basket of the game was made by Riley Moberly at the buzzer.
“I thought Taylor Chaney played real well in there (Monday) as well. She and Natalie, with that interior passing, played well together all preseason,” Moberly said. “We’ve got a lot of things out of a lot of kids. We played a lot of kids, and they all gave us something positive, so we’re pleased with that.”
The Lady Indians return to the court on Saturday in their home opener vs. East Clinton to begin the final season of South Central Ohio League play.
In JV play, Hillsboro defeated Fayetteville, 48-23. Leading HHS were Mckenzie Cosby with 14 points and Kayden Watson with 11. Fayetteville was led by Alexis Houk with 11.
The game had a change of venue due to a problem with the scoreboard in the high school gym, so the two teams played their non-conference game in the middle school gym, where the game went back and forth with the two teams forcing many turnovers with their defense. Though the Lady Indians held the lead at halftime and got back to within a point of the lead in the fourth frame, they lost their season opener by a 55-47 score.
“We’re real long, we’re athletic and we can do some things. We’re not real quick, but we talked about getting better angles, playing smarter instead of quicker,” HHS head coach JR Moberly said. “(Monday), I think especially offensively, we were trying to be too fast.
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“Defensively, the effort was great in the second half, and we made a lot of reads. I was really pleased with that. And I told them, they could have folded, but they didn’t. They dug in and played hard. We just came up a little short.”
Even in the losing outcome, there were still some positives to build on for the remaining 21 regular-season games on the schedule, the first being the opening two quarters of the game. After one quarter, the Lady Indians trailed by a 11-10 score after leading for most of the first frame. The second quarter, HHS outscored the Lady Rockets, 11-9, giving them a 21-20 halftime advantage.
In the opening quarter, the Lady Indians unofficially forced four straight turnovers on the first four Fayetteville possessions but only held a 2-0 lead. HHS extended their lead to 4-0 with Natalie Sullivan scoring the first four points of the game off jump shots.
Sullivan led the Lady Indians with 12 points, making six two-point baskets. In all, nine players for HHS scored points.
HHS took a six-point lead with a jumper by Ashleigh Baucom midway through the first frame, but Fayetteville came back with a 3-pointer by Taylor Cornett to cut the HHS lead in half. Cornett finished with 14 points. Leading Fayetteville was Cecilia Murphy with 20 points. Also in double figures for the Lady Rockets was Hannah Wiederhold with 15 points.
Following two more points by the hosts, the Lady Indians continued to pressure the Lady Rockets with their defense forcing more turnovers, eventually seeing Kaley Burns scoring two points for the Lady Indians with 2:47 left in the opening frame. Burns ended the game with 11 points.
The Lady Rockets had an answer by scoring the final six points of the first quarter, four of the points off turnovers, for an 11-10 lead after the opening eight minutes of the season.
HHS took and extended their lead with four points to open the second quarter, including a layup by Taylor Chaney and a put-back bucket by Sullivan for a 14-11 advantage with 6:30 on the scoreboard. As the quarter continued, the Lady Indians continued to hold on to the lead until the 3:38 mark when the Lady Rockets tied the score at 16.
Fayetteville went back ahead by two points, but HHS came back to tie the score at 18 off a put-back basket from Burns. The Lady Indians later went ahead by a 21-18 score with a jumper by Sullivan and free throw by Kelsey Burns with 2:08 left in the opening quarter. Fayetteville cut the lead to one point with a layup with under 30 seconds left in the quarter for the 21-20 halftime score.
In the third quarter, Hillsboro came out missing the same energy they played with in the first two quarters, and they suffered by being outscored, 19-8, trailing by 10 points entering the fourth quarter. The highlights for the third frame for the Lady Indians were 3-pointers by Sydney Bobbitt and Kaley Burns. The other two points for HHS in the third were scored by Madi Marsh.
“We did not get off to a good start coming out after halftime,” Moberly said. “We picked up our energy about halfway through the third quarter, late in the third quarter, but I think we just kind of burned too much to get out of the hole. The bad start to the second half was kind of the undoing of us.”
Moberly also spoke about the passing of the team, as they committed double-digit turnovers in the first half alone.
“It left a lot to be desired at times. We had 14 turnovers at halftime, and they probably had another 14 deflections,” Moberly said. “A lot of girls can make good passes, they handle the ball well, but I think some of it’s just nerves.
“It’s something that we have to improve on. We have to take better care of the basketball and get shots on our offensive possessions. I don’t know what we ended up with, but it was way too many turnovers.”
Having to play catch-up for the final eight minutes, the Lady Indians did keep battling, and they slowly cut down the lead of the Lady Rockets by converting extra chance opportunities and forcing turnovers.
A big turn of events for HHS included a 3-pointer by Bobbitt with 4:27 left in the game, followed by a jumper at the 3:48 mark from Sullivan to get within one point of Fayetteville for a 41-40 score. Fayetteville built their lead back to nine points at the 1:32 mark of the fourth, but HHS sank a 3-pointer by Lana Grover with just under a minute on the clock to get back to within six points.
The Lady Rockets responded by making four of their final six free throws to seal the win. The final basket of the game was made by Riley Moberly at the buzzer.
“I thought Taylor Chaney played real well in there (Monday) as well. She and Natalie, with that interior passing, played well together all preseason,” Moberly said. “We’ve got a lot of things out of a lot of kids. We played a lot of kids, and they all gave us something positive, so we’re pleased with that.”
The Lady Indians return to the court on Saturday in their home opener vs. East Clinton to begin the final season of South Central Ohio League play.
In JV play, Hillsboro defeated Fayetteville, 48-23. Leading HHS were Mckenzie Cosby with 14 points and Kayden Watson with 11. Fayetteville was led by Alexis Houk with 11.