STRASBURG — The days of beating Inter-Valley Conference foes by 50 are over for the Hiland girls basketball team. In fact, it is going to be a stretch for the Hawks to score 50 this season.

Hiland managed to hit the half-century mark in the season opener Wednesday in the new home for Strasburg, spoiling the debut of the beautiful new gym with a 50-37 win over the Tigers.

"I guess it's a starting point... a very low one," Hiland coach Dave Schlabach said. "In the past, when a kid got a hot hand, it was automatic. We'd come down and get the ball to her. That wasn't the case tonight."

That's because no one really got a hot hand.

The game went back and forth with a pair of young teams making many mistakes. Hiland held a 10-8 lead after the opening eight minutes of action, and built a 20-13 advantage at intermission, thanks to a couple 3-pointers from freshman Regina Hochstetler.

"I thought our two freshmen played to their potential. Regina hits some shots and Jenica (Schrock) did a great job defensively," Schlabach said. "Those two filled their roles. I didn't think anybody else did.

"We had 20 turnovers, played out of control and did a poor job of focusing," the coach continued. "Hopefully, they'll get better. Our leaders have to do a better job."

Strasburg chipped away at Hiland's halftime lead, scoring four straight to open the third quarter and pulled within 20-17.

Bria Coil stopped the run with an inside bucket, but the Tigers answered at the other end to make it 22-19.

McKenzie Miller then scored on a stickback and followed that up with a 3-pointer from the wing.

Strasburg junior Nikki Creagan, who led all scorers with 21 points, scored, but Hannah Stoneman answered inside to give Hiland a 31-26 advantage after three periods of play.

After Creagan scored to cut Hiland's lead back to three to open the fourth quarter, Stoneman scored six straight to push the lead back out to 37-28. Miller scored on a stickback and the Hawks were up 11, 39-28, with 5:45 to play.

The Tigers were never able to recover.

Hiland answered every Strasburg counter and held on for their first win of the season.

Miller paced the Hiland attack with 13 points. Stoneman scored 10 and Hochstetler finished with nine, after scoring eight in the first half.

"Regina is a tremendous shooter. She passed up a few shots there in the second half because she wasn't ready," Schlabach said. "She should never pass up a shot."

The Tigers' coach was pleased with his team's effort despite the setback in the new gym.

"I couldn't ask for any more effort out of those girls," Strasburg coach Brenton Bonnano said. "They had an opportunity tonight to do something special.

"This was the first game here, the game everyone is going to remember. They gave it everything they had. We've just got to tweak a few things and get some people healthy."