Lady Indians have season closed in sectional finals
KINNIKINNICK — The tournament road came to a close for the Hillsboro Lady Indians on Sunday afternoon at Zane Trace High School, concluding what was the most successful season for the program in over a decade.
The end of the road came against the No. 1 seeded Chillicothe Lady Cavaliers in the Division II SE District Sectional Finals by a 54-38 score, in what was a matchup of two South Central Ohio League teams.
For the 2014-15 Lady Indians, it was about more than the final score in their final game, because they were a large part in building back a program that struggled before the arrival of the current senior and junior class.
The seniors who played their final game were Kaylynn Bell, Tyeika Cumberland, Kirsten Juillerat, Hannah Kibler, Trista Rhodes and Alyssa Sullivan.
Sullivan and Bell led the Lady Indians in scoring on Sunday with nine points each.
Following the game, head coach JR Moberly spoke about those players who took over the program and finished this season with a 16-8 overall record. HHS went 1-1 in the postseason, defeating Jackson, 44-35 in the sectional semifinals.
"This group of seniors have been awesome," Moberly said. "They put in countless hours in the gym over the summer, in the fall and all winter long they've played hard and together.
"They've been a great group of kids to work with. They love each other and hang out with each other. There is no jealously amongst them, at not that I've seen, and they've just been a great group of kids.
"I don't want to forget our juniors Maddie Snyder and Reaghan Haines … sometimes at the end of the season you talk about your seniors so much, but those two girls have done so much for us too. Just overall, the whole group of kids have been excellent to work with, and I've been blessed to have that opportunity."
As for the game itself, the Lady Indians impressed against the reigning co-champions of the SCOL, holding them to single-digit scoring in the first frame, though they trailed 8-5 after the first quarter.
In that opening frame, the Lady Indians trailed 6-0 after four minutes of play, only to end the frame by outscoring their opponent, 5-2 with points by Snyder, Bell and Sullivan.
CHS opened the second frame with five straight points from Jenna Holton, though Madi Marsh of HHS (who finished with six points) followed with a steal at half-court and layup for two points, making it a 13-7 deficit with 1:30 left in the quarter.
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Those ended up being the only points for the quarter for the Lady Indians, ending the second trailing 17-7.
"We couldn't make anything, couldn't get anything to fall … our perimeter shots wouldn't go, and we struggled to get the ball in the paint against their defense," Moberly said. "They made things difficult for us, and we weren't able to make adjustments or make shots, so that was the tale over the course of the day.
"We tried to pick up our energy and generate some things out of the defense, and tried to generate some extra opportunities, but we just couldn't. I can't fault my kids' effort … they played hard and did everything we asked them to do. The game plan we had I thought was good, but we just couldn't knock shots down."
HHS trailed by 11 points at the completion of the third frame, as they were outscored 16-15 in the quarter with the score at 33-22.
In the third, Chillicothe's Bri Dawes sank a jumper, only to have Kibler and Snyder sink jumpers of their own to cut the Lady Cavaliers' lead to eight points with 6:43 left in the quarter.
Later in the frame, Bell, Snyder, Juillerat and Rhodes all added points to the HHS side of the scoreboard, but still trailed by seven points with around 3:00 left on the clock. Snyder ended the game with seven points.
WIth 1:05 on the scoreboard, Marsh made two free throws for a 28-20 score, but from there, CHS ended the quarter with a 5-2 run for the aforementioned 11-point advantage.
In the fourth, the Lady Indians never got closer than 11 points of the CHS lead, that coming with a 3-pointer from Bell with 7:06 left in the quarter. The final points of the HHS season were scored by Marsh with under a minute left in regulation.
The win by No. 1 seeded CHS moves them to the district semifinal round, where they will face No. 2 seeded Vincent Warren on Thursday, Feb. 26 at SEHS with an 8 p.m. tipoff.