Lady Indians win county game over Whiteoak

HILLSBORO — For the Hillsboro Lady Indians, the game was a little closer than they wanted in the first quarter, but they overcame their miscues to gain a non-league Highland County rivalry win over the visiting Whiteoak Lady Wildcats.

Hillsboro (3-2, 6-3) led by a 17-10 score after the first frame and from there never lost the lead as they defeated the Lady 'Cats, 71-39 Saturday night at Hillsboro High School.

In that first frame, Hillsboro's Kaylynn Bell sank two 3-pointers, while teammates Alyssa Sullivan, Madison Snyder, Hannah Kibler and Tyeika Cumberland all contributed to the scoring and the seven-point lead. Snyder led HHS with 17 points, while Bell totaled 14 point in the win.

Kirsten Juillerat (who had four blocks), Kibler and Sullivan each finished with eight points. Kibler led HHS with 11 rebounds, while Rhodes had a team-high six assists. HHS also totaled 45 rebounds.

"We were hampered by foul troubles in the first half, and I thought all of us lost our composure, myself included, in the first half," HHS head coach JR Moberly said. "We found it in the locker room and came out and played much better in the second half.

"We shot the ball pretty well in the second half and got some good looks. We handled the pressure better in the second half, and I was real pleased with that."

For WHS (0-4, 2-5) in the first quarter, it was Sunnie Lehr and Emma Wardlow making 3-pointers, while Courtney Cummings also contributed to the scoring in the opening eight minutes.

Wardlow led all scorers with 18 points.

Then came the second quarter when the Lady Indians outscored the Lady 'Cats, 15-8, building a halftime lead of 32-18.

In that second quarter, WHS managed to cut the HHS lead down to five points with 6:55 on the scoreboard after layups from Wardlow and Jaycie Parr for a 19-14 deficit.

HHS had other plans besides a comeback from WHS, as they outscored the visitors 10-1 in the final 4:31 of the quarter with Kirsten Juillerat and Snyder scoring the 10 points for HHS with Juillerat sinking a jumper and layup, while Snyder scored six points in the paint.

In the second half, the Lady Indians outscored WHS, 39-21.

The third frame saw Snyder open the quarter with two points, followed by a three-point play from Bell with 7:01 on the clock for a 37-19 HHS advantage. From there, after two points from Whiteoak's Maggie Carr, Bell scored two points on a fast break and Trista Rhodes sank a 3-pointer with 5:47 on the clock for a 42-19 advantage.

HHS made it a 7-0 run with two points by Cumberland. The scoring run was stopped with a layup by Wardlow as she took the ball full court, but those points were equaled by Juillerat to keep HHS ahead by 24 points.

By the time the fourth frame arrived, HHS led 50-26, as HHS ended the final eight minutes by outscoring WHS, 21-13.

WHS in the fourth had two 3-pointers from Ashleigh Harless and one trey from Wardlow.

HHS had seven players score points, including Natalie Sullivan and Taylor Chaney.

"The timing of the break is a little tough this year, falling on a Thursday and getting just one day of practice before you are back out in games," Moberly said. "We had a good practice Friday for about an hour and a half, and they responded well (Saturday)."