Indians earn FAC win over rival McClain in Greenfield

GREENFIELD — The longer the game went between the Hillsboro Indians and McClain Tigers Friday evening at McClain Gym, it was Hillsboro who consistently added to their lead, allowing them to take home a Frontier Athletic Conference victory 62-44 at McClain Gym. 

In the battle of the two Highland County rivals, the two Highland County teams in the FAC began rivalry night with the Indians leading by five points at the end of the first frame at 12-7. Though the Indians scored first with a basket by sophomore Dawson Barnett, it was McClain taking the early lead with a 3-pointer from sophomore Brady Binegar for a 3-2 score. 

Hillsboro junior Jack Howland responded with a 3-pointer of his own, followed by two converted free throws at the 5:32 mark of the quarter for a 7-3 HHS lead. Howland finished the game with 34 points (his career-high is 35 points as a sophomore), totaling nine two-pointers, two 3-pointers, and he was 10-of-10 from the free-throw line. He also had three rebounds, three assists and one steal.

The Tigers eventually answered with a basket from senior Julien Evans with 3:21 on the clock. HHS increased their lead back to four points with a bucket from senior Mason Dumpert, but right there was McClain sophomore Hudson Lovett sinking a jumper with 2:20 left in the first, bringing the Tigers back to within two points of tying the game. Lovett finished the game with eight points. Dumpert ended the game with nine points, two rebounds, three assists and two steals. 

“I’ve had the pleasure of coaching Mason for four years, and he’s gotten better each year, and this year is no different,” Hillsboro head coach Josh Howland said. “Right now he’s playing at a high level, and he understands when to attack. He did a great job of shooting against Portsmouth West the other game, and he’s a nice player for sure.”

Like he has thus far all season, Jack Howland came up clutch with a 3-pointer for the Indians at the buzzer for a 12-7 score to end the first quarter. 

Josh Howland spoke about the chemistry of his team as the season has progressed, winning four of their past six games. 

“A lot of it has to buy-in and the chemistry comes,” Howland said. “Once we have the buy-in we are willing to work for each other, work for the team, and not just go out to do their own thing, not that this group here has specifically ever done that. They didn’t know exactly what they were working for, but now I feel like they are working for a group of friends they can have for a lifetime.”

Hillsboro built a lead as high as 14 points in the second frame, but ended the quarter with an 11-point advantage at halftime at 26-15 as the two teams were playing in front of a capacity packed McClain Gymnasium. 

Howland scored the first four points of the second quarter off two made free throws and layup for a 16-7 lead. 

The Tigers came back with five points of their own off a jumper from Lovett and a 3-pointer by senior Jordan Bell, as the senior shooter brought MHS back to a four-point deficit with 5:09 on the second quarter clock. Bell finished the game with 15 points, including three 3-pointers. 

“Jordan did a good job defensively in the second half, and I think he did that willingly. That’s the kind of leader he is,” Haines said. “If you are here and see Jordan Bell, he’s getting after it, guarding their best players, making shots, attacking the rim. I thought Jordan played a really good game.

“We had some of our other kids struggle a little bit, and it’s no secret Jack (Howland) is good and gets to the rim and he’s going to score. We helped a couple times, but not enough, and it is very disheartening when you are 11-12 games in and and were not in the middle midline, helpside, now they do a good job of clearing out the helpside. However, we did go over that, we watched it on film, we knew what they did, we’ve just got to execute. Not making shots in the first half hurt really bad. We had some open looks, but we’ve got to attack better. (Hillsboro did) and we didn’t, and that’s the story.”

From the 4:55 mark to the end of the second quarter, the Indians started to take the momentum of the game with a 10-3 run to end the quarter with six of those 10 points coming from the free-throw line. The run consisted of a three-point play by Howland, a free throw from Dumpert, two free throws by senior Zack Brown, a layup by senior Jeven Hochstuhl (who totaled eight points, two rebounds, one assist, three steals), and two more free throws from Howland. 

McClain ended the first half with a 3-pointer by sophomore Connor Chandler, leaving the Indians still ahead by 11 points at 26-15 as HHS outscored the Tigers 14-8 in the frame. 

The Indians’ lead in the third frame never was lower than nine points and was as high as 15 points with 2:44 left in the quarter, outscoring the Tigers 18-7 in the frame. Hillsboro’s third frame saw scoring from Dumpert (two points), Hochstuhl (six points), Howland (five points) and sophomore Easton Inman (five points). MHS had scoring from Bell (five points), Chandler (three points), Lovett (four points) and sophomore Matthew Cummins (four points). 

HHS had another 18 points in the fourth quarter where the Tigers scored 13 points. MHS in the fourth had scoring by Bell (seven points), Evans (three points), Cummins (two points) and sophomore Kolton Lamb (one point). 

Hillsboro’s fourth quarter included points from Juillerat (two), Dumpert (four) and Howland (12 points). 

“I’ve been fortunate to be a part of this rivalry game for several years now, and I’m not taking anything away from (McClain) because they played their guts out,” Howland said. “I feel like they played hard all the way to the end, but we felt like with our kids, the more prepared we were, the less anxious we would be, the less likely we’d be less focused. I felt like the kids followed the scouting report for the most part, to a tee, came in focused, understood what the goals were. It was just like business, and we came in and took care of business.” 

Other HHS final totals were: Juillerat (two points, five rebounds, one steal), Barnett (two points, seven rebounds, three assists, one steal), Brown (two points, four rebounds, one assist, one steal) and Inman (five points, two rebounds, one assist). 

HHS totals for their team were 18 two-pointers, three 3-pointers, and they were 17-of-19 from the free-throw line (89-percent). Other totals for the Indians included: 25 rebounds (11 offensive), 12 assists, 11 steals and five turnovers. MHS totaled 26 rebounds (11 offensive). 

McClain’s final scoring totals were: Binegar (three points), Chandler (six points), Evans (five points), Cummins (six points) and Lamb (one point). Totals for the Tigers were 12 two-pointers, five 3-pointers, and they were 5-of-11 from the free-throw line (45-percent). 

Next for Hillsboro (1-4, 4-10) is a game Tuesday, Jan. 20 at home against the Miami Trace Panthers (5-0, 11-2) in FAC action. 

McClain (0-5, 5-7) is scheduled next for a game Tuesday, Jan. 20 on the road in FAC action against the Chillicothe Cavaliers (2-2, 7-3)

BOX SCORE
HHS    12 14 18 18 — 62
MHS    07 08 16 13 — 44

HILLSBORO (62) — B.Juillerat 1 (0) 0-0 2, M.Dumpert 3 (0) 3-4 9, D.Barnett 1 (0) 0-0 2, J.Hochstuhl 2 (1) 1-1 8, J.Howland 9 (2) 10-10 34, Z.Brown 0 (0) 2-2 2, E.Inman 2 (0) 1-2 5. TOTALS: 18 (3) 17-19 62. 

MCCLAIN (44) — B.Binegar 0 (1) 0-0 3, J.Bell 3 (3) 0-0 15, C.Chandler 1 (1) 1-2 6, J.Evans 2 (0) 1-2 5, H.Lovett 3 (0) 2-2 8, M.Cummins 3 (0) 0-1 6, K.Lamb 0 (0) 1-4 1. TOTALS: 12 (5) 5-11 44.