Hiland coach Dave Schlabach showed his softer side on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at the Perry Reese Jr. Community Center as the Lady Hawks celebrated senior night in a boy-girls doubleheader with the Hawks against Newcomerstown.

In a pre-arranged beginning, Newcomerstown won the opening tip and scored a layup.  Mykeila Mast, who blew out her knee before the start of the season and had not been able to play since surgery on her ACL, was in the starting lineup and had leaked down the court and was hit with a pass for an uncontested layup.  Those may be her only points of the season, but you could tell by the grin on her face how much it meant to her.

"It's been a tough season for her," Schlabach said.  "People don't realize how good she got this summer.  At many of the shootouts we went to, she was our best player.  It's too bad what happened to her.  But she's going to have a great college career.  It was nice to get her an opportunity to score."

After Mast's bucket, a timeout was called and she was replaced, leaving the court to a great ovation.

Maybe they should've left her in, as few of the Lady Hawks were able to finish their shots and Newcomerstown hung right with Hiland through the first quarter, trailing 9-7 after the opening eight minutes.

Reality set in through the second quarter as Hiland turned up the defensive pressure and went on a 23-6 run to take a 32-13 lead into intermission and cruised to a 77-24 romp over the Trojans.

"We're not where we want to be," Schlabach said.  "At halftime, we're asking ourselves who we go to in the rotation.  We have a lot of questions."

The big three seniors, Noelle Yoder, Hilary Weaver and Katelyn Stuckey, all finished scoring in double figures to lead the Lady Hawks, while McKenzie Miller just missed double figures with nine points and senior Jessica Stutzman ended her home career with eight points and four offensive rebounds.

Yoder paced the attack with 18 points, dropping four 3-point bombs on the Trojans.  Weaver finished with 15 points and seven assists.  Stuckey scored 11 points and added three boards.

Regan Miller chipped in four points and five other players each scored two:  Kendra Schlabach, Missy Mast, Hannah Stoneman, Arrianna Schrock and Julie Raber.

Hiland outscored Newcomerstown 45-11 in the second half to put the game away, capping off another undefeated Inter-Valley Conference season with a 16-0 mark.  The Lady Hawks are 18-2 overall heading into tournament action Thursday Feb. 18, against Toronto.

"It's time to put up or shut up," Schlabach said.  "A week or two will go by and all of a sudden we're playing someone who can end your season.  On nights when we've played really good people who can beat us, we've been able to take it up a notch.  We're hoping that's going to be the case.

"We haven't been able to play well against bad teams," the coach continued.  "Our best teams in the past have done that.  This team has not been able to do that."