Lady Indians avenge early-season loss to Washington

HILLSBORO — Following a 28-point first quarter by the Hillsboro Lady Indians that gave them a 10-point lead over the Washington Lady Blue Lions Wednesday night, they didn’t relinquish the lead for the remainder of the game, defeating the visiting Lady Lions, 74-46.

Gaining their third Frontier Athletic Conference victory was big for Hillsboro, and in the process of winning by 28 points — leading by as many as 30 points on two occasions — the Lady Indians avenged an early-season 53-50 loss to Washington from Nov. 29, allowing them to split the season series. 

With the win, the Lady Indians improved to 6-7 overall and 3-3 in the FAC, as this was Hillsboro’s fourth win in their past five games. They have defeated East Clinton, Paint Valley, McClain and Washington in that span of games. 

HHS head coach Heather Storer spoke about the win following the game. 

“Both teams had a big first quarter. That's a high-scoring girls basketball game in one quarter. Absolutely a good start for us. We gave up too many in that first quarter defensively,” she said. “That's the most we gave up in a quarter all game, so defensively I think we had a little bit of letdown in that first quarter, but for us to be able to put 28 up and they're good shots — we took a lot of layups, made a lot of free throws in that first quarter, so good opportunities for us.”

On Wednesday at HHS, the Lady Indians jumped out to a 4-1 early lead, as Blake Herdman scored all four of those points for Hillsboro off a jumper and later a put-back basket after grabbing an offensive rebound. Herdman ended the game with 14 points and had a double-double with 11 rebounds.

Washington (3-3, 7-7) answered with four straight points from Eliana Racine and Maggi Wall, pushing Washington ahead 5-4 with 5:00 on the clock. Kobie Miles came back with a three-point play, but the Lady Blue Lions followed with 3-pointers made by Wall and Callee Ellars for an 11-7 deficit for Hillsboro. 

With 3:49 left in the first, Hillsboro continued to battle with a 3-pointer by Addyson Miles, but WCH extended their lead to three points with a jumper by Calleigh Wead-Salmi with 3:33 on the clock, putting the Lady Indians down at 13-10. 

The 46 points combined by Hillsboro and Washington in the first frame continued to put the scoreboard to work as HHS scored six consecutive points in a span of 1:02 with Kyra Boyd and Peighton Bledsoe driving to the hoop for points, while HHS regained the lead at 16-13. 

HHS added to their lead with a Washington turnover forced by Tylee Davis, resulting in the freshman scoring two points with 1:32 on the clock. 

Boyd led Hillsboro with 18 points, while Bledsoe ended with 14 points, and Davis scored 10 points, plus she added seven rebounds. As a team, HHS totaled 37 rebounds.

Washington rallied with a basket by Wead-Salmi, but a 3-pointer and free throw made by Boyd, followed by a layup by Bledsoe and two points by Boyd, left HHS in front 28-18 when the first quarter closed. 

Hillsboro outscored Washington 39-24 in the second quarter as they began the second with a steal and layup by Bledsoe, as the junior Bledsoe finished the game with 11 deflections on defense for HHS. 

Washington came back with four points, only to see Hillsboro’s Herdman knock down a 3-pointer with 3:16 left in the quarter, followed by a basket by Bledsoe and a layup from Boyd for a 37-22 advantage for the home team.

The second quarter came to a close with a jumper by Kaithlyn Maguiling for Washington, and two free throws by Hillsboro’s Bledsoe, leaving the Lady Indians ahead at the half by a 39-24 score. 

“Looking across the board, I'm not disappointed. The second quarter, they got to us a little bit. Our scoring slowed down. We had kids open, and we weren't taking quality shots,” Storer said. “We were taking kind of what they were trying to give us, which is what we did the first time we played them. We didn't take our shots, and once we got over that hump a little bit, we were able to amp it back up in that second half.”

Hillsboro outscored the Lady Blue Lions 17-8 in the third, taking a 56-32 lead after three quarters. In the third frame, Herdman made a 3-pointer, while Bledsoe, Addyson Miles — who finished with seven points —  and Boyd each made two baskets for four points apiece. The Lady Indians also had two points scored by Kobie Miles in the quarter. 

Hillsboro’s fourth quarter saw the team score 18 points, with Davis leading the way in the final frame with eight points. 

The fourth frame also saw Boyd score points on a layup, while Herdman added four points on two baskets. The Lady Indians also had scoring from Kallie Fraley off a layup, and Annia Young scored two points off a put-back basket. 

HHS ended the final quarter by outscoring Washington, 18-14. 

“Seventy-four points for us is still a lot. We definitely don't average that many, but when we’ve got kids driving to the basket hard and shooting layups and making free throws, we're going to have a lot of kids that can score that high amount,” Storer said. “It's a different kid every night for us. We’ve got a lot of kids that can take different opportunities, and lots of kids that do different things well for us, so it's a different kid every night, and tonight we had quite a few ready to play.”

Washington was led in scoring by Wead-Salmi with 15 points, followed by Wall with 14 points. The remainder of Washington’s final scoring included: Maguiling (2), Racine (5), Ellars (4), Lilly Shaw (4) and Trinity George (2). 

The Lady Blue Lions finished the game 3-of-5 from the free-throw line, and they totaled three 3-pointers (Wall 2, Ellars). 

Next for Hillsboro is an away FAC game on Saturday, Jan. 13 at Jackson, starting at 7 p.m.

Washington is scheduled to face Chillicothe on Saturday, Jan. 13 vs. Chillicothe at 1:30 p.m. 

BOX SCORE
WHS    18 06 08 14 — 46
HHS     28 11 17 18 — 74

HILLSBORO (74) — P.Bledsoe 6 (0) 2-2 14, K.Miles 2 (0) 3-3 7, T.Davis 4 (0) 2-2 10, A.Miles 2 (1) 0-0 7, K.Boyd 7 (1) 1-2 18, K.Fraley 1 (0) 0-0 2, B.Herdman 4 (2) 0-0 14, A.Young 1 (0) 0-0 2. TOTALS: 27 (4) 8-9 74.

WASHINGTON (46) — K.Maguiling 1 (0) 0-0 2, M.Wall 4 (2) 0-0 14, C.Wead-Salmi 7 (0) 1-1 15, E.Racine 2 (0) 1-2 5, T.George 1 (0) 0-0 2, C.Ellars 0 (1) 1-2 4, L.Shaw 2 (0) 0-0 4. TOTALS: 17 (3) 3-5 46.