The Lady Hawks were on the receiving end of one of the beatings they normally administer when national power Potter's House Christian Academy came to the Perry Reese Jr. Community Center to cap off the first day of Classic in the Country on Saturday, Jan. 16.

Spurred by a 16-0 run to open the third quarter, the Lions roared to a 77-54 victory over the Lady Hawks.  It was Hiland's first loss of the year.

"It felt good.  Seriously," Hiland coach Dave Schlabach said.  "We enjoyed the competition.  Our kids get really tired of those blowouts.  We felt better in our locker room tonight after that game than we did in probably eight of our games this year.

"We felt we played as hard as we could play," the coach continued.  "We had to battle.  We just want to compete.  You never learn anything about yourself unless you play better people.  They are as good as any team in the state of Ohio in any division."

The Lady Hawks came out of the chute fast, jumping out to a 5-0 lead on a McKenzie Miller 3-pointer.

But before Hiland knew what hit them, the Lions roared back, scoring 10 unanswered points, including a pair of 3-pointers.

Noelle Yoder canned a pair of triples for the Lady Hawks, who trailed 19-14 after the first quarter.

Miller connected on another triple to pull Hiland within two to open the second quarter, and a three-point play by Arrianna Schrock trimmed the lead to one midway through the second quarter, but the Lions led 37-30 at intermission.

"In the first half, we were right there," Schlabach said.  "In the first couple of minutes of the second half, we took the ball to the basket without good results.  They stretched their lead quickly and it was game over.  We've seen them put 35 up in a quarter.  They did it against Mount Notre Dame.  They can score as fast as any team I've ever seen."

As well as Hiland played in the first half, there was no stopping Potter's House in the second half as Antoinette Bannister found her range, and poured in 10 of her 15 points in the period.

The Lady Hawks were outscored 26-5 in the third quarter as the Lions wrested control of the contest.

Hiland did finish strong, outscoring Potter's House 19-14 in the final frame, but it wasn't enough.

Hilary Weaver played an outstanding game for Hiland, hitting all five of her shots from the field, going 8-of-8 from the free throw line, and dealing out seven assists against unbelievable pressure.

"I thought Hil was the best point guard on the court tonight," Schlabach said.  "She handled that pressure, which is as good as any in the country.  Three turnovers against all that pressure is just phenomenal."

Potter's House coach Tony Bannister agreed.

"I was impressed with what Coach Schlabach did," Bannister said.  "I told my kids that they would be ready to play, and they didn't disappoint.  They did a great job of handling our press early on.  No. 30 is a phenomenal player.

"They surprised us early," Bannister continued.  "Our kids weren't expecting them to play pressure back to us.  Their positioning on defense was great.

"We've played in hostile crowds, but never anything like this," he added.  "They were loud, man!  Our fans were yelling and screaming, but when they announced their team, it went up another 15 decibels.  The fans were a factor early on and you could see their team feeding off of that."

Miller finished with 11 points for Hiland and Yoder chipped in 10.

"That was a very gutsy performance by Noelle, playing on a tweaked MCL, and I thought some of our younger kids had their moments," Schlabach said.  "I thought our kids continued to battle all the way.  I was impressed with our effort late."

Bannister and Loliya Briggs led the Lions with 15 points apiece and Brittany Rountree added 13.  Ganice Macho and Shalethia Stringfield each added eight for the winners.

Katelyn Stuckey scored seven points and pulled down seven rebounds.  Schrock added five points and Jessica Stutzman rounded out the Hiland scoring with three.