Daily Record Sports Writer
AKRON—The Hiland Hawks suffered their fourth straight setback in the same fashion as their last three, struggling early, battling back only to come up short.
The story was the same Saturday at St. Vincent-St. Mary, where the Irish pulled out a 52-49 victory in overtime.
"The strength of our schedule is exposing our weaknesses," said Hiland coach Dave Schlabach. "Our inability to compete and to lead right from the start is hurting us."
The Hawks rallied from the depths of an 11-point deficit to outscore the Irish 19-8 in the fourth quarter to force overtime.
Kendra Schlabach started the comeback by stroking a 3-pointer.
After a turnover, Meagan Hall went deep. Another turnover, another triple, this time from McKenzie Miller.
And the Hawks trailed by three, 38-37, with five minutes remaining in the game.
The girls kept it close, but couldn't get over the hump.
Kiley May split a pair of free throws two times in a row for the Irish and Hiland answered with a bucket by Miller and the visitors were down 42-39 inside three minutes.
A pair of free throws from Hall pulled the Hawks within 43-41.
A pair of freebies by Jordan Korinek gave the hosts a 45-41 advantage with 49 seconds left in regulation.
Jasmine Goings answered with two charity tosses at the other end, and after Hiland's press forced another turnover, Schlabach scored inside to knot the score at 45 and force an overtime.
Goings split a pair of free throws to give Hiland its first lead at 46-45 with 2:20 remaining in the game, but the Hawks missed their next three shots and three SVSM free throws gave the Irish a 49-46 lead with less than a minute to play.
An intentional foul on the Hawks led to one point, as the Irish managed only one of three free throws, but it gave the hosts a four-point lead Hiland could not overcome.
The Hawks suffered through one of the worst quarters of basketball its played in a long time, yet still only trailed by four, 9-5 after one quarter of play.
The Hawks committed seven turnovers and missed their first four shots from the field before Kendra Schlabach got a 3-pointer to fall with 1:31 remaining in the first to cut into the Irish' 7-0 lead.
Hiland finished the first quarter shooting 2-of-8 from the floor with seven turnovers.
Things started to improve early in the second quarter as Hiland got as close as 13-11 after McKenzie Miller pumped in two baskets and a pair of free throws.
SVSM outscored the Hawks 10-1 over the final five minutes of the first half to take a 23-12 advantage into the locker room at intermission.
A 3-pointer by Meagan Hall ignited a 10-2 Hiland run, powered by seven points from Miller, who finished with a team-high 17 points to pace the Hawks.
Hiland got as close as 31-26, before Shannon Jack buried back-to-back triples to extend the Irish lead back out to 37-26 after three quarters.
"We have so players not playing up to their potential," Schlabach said.
Hiland dipped to 9-5 with the loss.
