BERLIN — Ever been to an outdoor event and had it ruined by swarming pesky gnats?

That must be how the Swarmin' Hornets of Damascus (Md.) felt when they made their initial visit to Hiland for the Classic in the Country.

The diminutive Hawks had their work cut out for them, facing the Hornets, who fielded a team of 6-foot-3, 6-1, 6-1 players. But, as Hiland proved, the bigger they come, the harder they fall, squashing the Hornets 47-30.

"We felt we had to really keep their bigs away from the basket, and I thought our post defenders did a real good job of that," said Hiland coach Dave Schlabach. "Our guard pressure was good. First time somebody plays you like that, it's easier to make your pressure bother them. And I think that happened tonight."

Hiland's defense forced 15 turnovers, but the Hawks coughed it up 14 times themselves.

"We felt we had to hit a lot of outside shots with their size," Schlabach said. "Fortunately, we had some kids knocking down shots early. We turned it over too much in the first half, but we had four in the second half, so that was better."

Regina Hochstetler paced the Hawks with 24 points, drilling four 3-pointers. Megan Beachy also canned a pair from deep.

"When they're so much taller than you, you have to show it or ball fake," Hochstetler said. "But we didn't approach this much different than our other games."

Damascus coach Steve Pisarski said his team hasn't seen that kind of pressure, and it showed.

"Last night (in Pittsburgh) we saw some pressure like Hiland's," Pisarski said. "That's one of our issues, where we play in our league, we don't see that kind of pressure. They really disrupt things. We don't have the guard play that creates scoring opportunities. We ended up having to set screens at half court and things like that which takes us out of what we like to do."

Neither team did much in the first quarter as Hiland took a 5-3 lead on a Megan Beachy 3-pointer.

Regina Hochstetler hit back-to-back triples to start the second period as Hiland opened up an 11-3 lead.

After 6-3 Kelli Prange split a pair of free throws, Beachy buried another triple and the Hawks held a 14-4 advantage. The Hawks led 18-10 at intermission.

Hiland continued to attack from the perimeter as Hochstetler and Kendra Schlabach went deep and the Hawks held a 28-22 lead after three as Anna Warfield canned a triple to pull the Hornets within six.

Hochstetler drilled a 3-pointer to open the final frame and a Jasmine Goings stickback made it 33-22 Hiland. The Hawks made good on their trips to the free throw line to close out the contest and notch win No. 13 against two losses.

The Hawks won the battle of the boards, 30-22, with Schlabach, one of the smaller players on the floor listed generously at 5-5, grabbing seven rebounds to the 6-3 Prange's five. Prange led Damascus with 15 points before fouling out.

Hochstetler praised her teammates for getting her the ball and she just let her shooting ability take over from there.

"Regina had a big game. That's kind of what we expect out of her anymore," Schlabach added.

Damascus came into the weekend undefeated, but lost last night in Pittsburgh and Saturday in Berlin.

"These are two January games. They don't mean much when our playoffs start," Pisarski said. "At the end of the day, it'll be a good experience because we need to learn how to win games like these. Hopefully this will make us more effective in March."