BERLIN — Hiland's press was impenetrable and the Lady Hawks shot with the Midas touch Wednesday night.

Those two factors proved to be too much for the visiting Trojans to overcome as Hiland handed Newcomerstown its first loss of the season 62-35 in Inter-Valley Conference action at the Perry Reese Jr. Community Center.

"We didn't handle the full-court pressure well at times," said Newcomerstown coach Craig Hamilton. "I really thought we were better prepared. It's hard to simulate that kind of stuff in practice. We got ourselves in too big a hole in the first half, and that's the way it went."

It was 10-0 Hiland before the Trojans even got off a shot.

Newcomerstown turned the ball over on its first four possessions and Hiland converted each of those miscues into easy buckets. Kendra Schlabach came up with a steal and took it the length of the floor for a score and followed that up with a 3-pointer off another Trojan turnover. Emily Yoder hit a pull-up jumper and McKenzie Miller came off the bench to drill a triple.

Miller stroked another trey and Hiland held a 20-8 lead after one. And the Hawks never looked back.

Miller hit her first four 3-point attempts, finishing with five on the night to pace the Hiland attack with 21 points.

"I thought our kids played really hard early," Hiland coach Dave Schlabach said. "Our pressure really bothered them. After a tough loss, the kids seemed a little more focused. We had a couple heartfelt practices the past two days. The kids came out pretty focused. We didn't do a lot of trap stuff. I just wanted our kids to play good, solid position defense.

"The first game she doesn't start, McKenzie comes in pretty locked in. She played well," the coach continued. "It was a new starting lineup. We were just trying to mix things up and give kids a chance to win starting jobs. I think we're still a work in progress. It seemed like today, more so than all season, kids were just ready to go early. We've been down 18 against TCC, 15 against Ridgewood, we struggled against Garaway. We came out a little bit stronger today. Hopefully, that's a good sign of what's to come."

Coach Schlabach moved Kendra Schlabach from point guard to shooting guard, and the sophomore responded with 14 points, hitting a pair of 3-pointers.

That leaves a pair of freshman (Schrock and Yoder) running the point.

"We're going to throw them into the fire and see what they can do," Schlabach said.

They did a good job against Newcomerstown. Yoder scored eight points and dished out four assists to go with four steals. Schrock added an assist and a steal.

"Our pressure by the two freshmen, Emily and Jenica was really good," Schlabach said. "Regan (Miller) and Ashley (Weaver) did a nice job on (Newcomerstown's Stephany) Felton. They kept her controlled for the majority of the game."

Felton paced the Trojans with 14 points.

"We played a lot of kids early and he didn't," Schlabach said. "Our lead early didn't allow him to use a bunch of kids on his bench. Kids like Emily Yoder, playing her first real varsity minutes, gave us some huge minutes out there. Even our non-scorers did some good things out there. Ashley (Weaver), Arrianna (Schrock), Bria (Coil) caught a couple in the post and finished.

"Throughout the season, kids get different opportunities to take advantage of," the coach continued. "Meagan (Hall) not being here tonight gave some kids the opportunity to make some plays and they took advantage of it. That was good to see. Against Garaway, we only scored three field goals other than Meagan Hall. She's not here, it could've been a game tonight where we score 25. But our pressure created enough easy opportunities that got us going.

"The game always looks a little better when you hit a few shots," Schlabach added. "Kendra (Schlabach), Regina (Hochstetler), Kenzie (Miller); that was what we needed. Now we play a really good team on Monday at the Hoover Classic (Northmont). We'll find out Monday what we've got."

Hiland stretched its lead to 38-19 at intermission and 51-28 after three.

"It's hard to play catch-up against a team that does such a great job being able to play 10-12 players," Hamilton said. "It was a battle of attrition. We had an off-night in a lot of areas of the game. But this is game No. 8. We've got a long way to go. We'll go back to work tomorrow. We've got another game to prepare for. Hopefully we'll get back in the win column soon."

Newcomerstown lost for the first time and is now 7-1 on the season, 5-1 in the IVC. Hiland improved to 5-1.

"I think our kids are very capable," Schlabach said. "Even though I've been hard on them publicly and privately, it's because I think they are capable of contributing more, doing more, trying to get them out of their comfort zone and challenge themselves a little bit."