Daily Record Sports Writer
MASSILLON — Throughout the season, the Hiland girls basketball team has played a variety of teams with differing styles — some with great size and others with tremendous athleticism — to prepare it for a deep tournament run.
Ultimately, though, the team that gave Dave Schlabach's squad the most fits was one that was well-coached, guard-oriented, played tenacious defense and didn't beat itself.
In other words, the Hawks had to earn a state tournament berth against a team that was just as scrappy as they were.
Angela Troyer sank the game-winning free throw with 2 seconds left and Hiland then held on for one last defensive stand for a 29-28 victory over Cuyahoga Heights in the Div. IV Massillon Regional final. With the win, the Hawks advance to the program's 14th Final Four — the most in OHSAA history. Hiland, 27-1 and ranked No. 1 in the state, now plays Fort Loramie on Thursday at 3 p.m. in the state semifinals at the Jerome Schottenstein Center.
After rolling St. Thomas Aquinas 56-30 in Thursday's semifinal, the Hawks were the overwhelming favorite coming into Saturday night's contest. However, the Redskins (23-4) played a methodical, grind-it-out style that tested Hiland in a way no other squad has this year. Schlabach said it was fitting that his team finally had to win a tight game in the postseason to move on to the Final Four.
"We've beaten great teams," Schlabach said, "but the score was spread out at the end of the game. This is the first time when there was less than a minute left and the game was on the line.
"If you win this one by 20," he added, "that's one thing, but to win one like that — they now deserve to go to Columbus."
The Hawks led 28-26 with under a minute left, but Cuyahoga Heights tied the game on a layup by Lauren Goetz. After a timeout, the Hawks ran a play with Kennedy Schlabach passing to Angela Troyer at the elbow. Troyer faked a handoff to Megan Beachy and then drove to the basket, drawing the foul. The 5-foot-7 sophomore, who finished with eight points, missed the first freebie but sank the second.
"I came up high, Kennedy passed it to me and it was a fake handoff to Megan," Troyer said. "I was supposed to take the layup, get the foul or pass it to Kennedy at the 3-point line."
Troyer admitted there were certainly some nerves when she went to the line, but she also had a healthy dose of confidence that she'd win the game.
"I knew I could do it," she said. "I didn't hit the first one, but I knew I'd hit the second one. We shoot those all the time — I had to knock it down."
Usually in those situations with the game on the line, teams put the ball in the hands of their leading scorers or veterans. In that case, the ball would've gone to Beachy, who's averaged 14 points per game this year, or Brittany Miller, the junior guard. However, because Cuyahoga Heights sold out to stop both players, Hiland opted to put the ball in the hands of another playmaker.
"They had two lockdown defenders on Megan and Brittany," Coach Schlabach said. "We felt we needed to get the ball to somebody else and we have a lot of confidence in Angie Troyer. She's made some big shots for us and we wanted the ball in her hands."
After Troyer's freebie, the Redskins promptly inbounded and heaved the ball across halfcourt and called timeout, leaving 1.7 seconds on the clock. On the final possession, the Redskins went to Jenna Stegmaier, their leading scorer who had helped them pull off the comeback over Windham with 20 points in the district final. The 5-10 senior, however, was blanketed on the final play by Miller and got off only a weak attempt near the 3-point line.
Miller has been the Hawks' defensive ace all season and she stuck to Stegmaier like duct tape all night as she was held to 10 points on just seven field goal attempts.
"The game ball goes to Brittany Miller," Coach Schlabach said. "She's had every lockdown defensive assignment and defensively she was phenomenal."
With just under 3 minutes left and Hiland clinging to a 27-26 lead, Stegmaier was able to get an angle to the lane and draw a foul. With a chance to put the Redskins up, though, Stegmaier misfired on both free throw attempts, the only two tries from the charity stripe the Redskins had all night.
While the Hawks have hung their hat on their pressure all year, Cuyahoga Heights coach Al Martin, whose team committed only two turnovers all night, said the Hawks actually caused his team more fits in the halfcourt. For the game, the Redskins were 12 for 32 from the field.
"Offensively they pressure all over the court and we embrace that because we're guard-oriented," he said. "With no size, if we can't handle the pressure, we don't belong here anyway. We got some looks off their press, but when it got in the halfcourt, it was hard for us to get open looks."
It is the second straight year Cuyahoga Heights has lost by a point in the regional final after falling to Zanesville Bishop Rosecrans 22-21 in 2014.
"Two brutal losses," Martin said. "All high school basketball players dream of getting down to the state tournament. We gave ourselves every chance to win right down to the end."
Offensively, Kennedy Schlabach was the only Hawk scoring in double figures with 10. After Hiland fell behind 19-15 late in the third frame, she and Troyer helped the Hawks retake the lead, with Troyer knocking down a jumper and then the rookie draining two consecutive 3-pointers to cap an 8-0 run and lead 23-19 going into the final 8 minutes.
"Both shots she took were contested," the coach said of his daughter. "She had to get them off quick and she wanted the ball. She called her own number. I don't have a freshman point guard out there any more — I just have a point guard."
Her two treys, however, were the only time in the game Hiland established any offensive momentum and the coach said that had everything to do with Cuyahoga Heights' style of play.
"They were the best-coached team we've seen all year," he said. "Defensively, they don't give you anything and they don't foul so you get no free throws. Those kinds of teams can beat you if you don't turn them over. We thought we could turn them over but it just didn't happen. Then you're just in a grind."
"We've never had a game like this," Kennedy Schlabach added. "For it to be in the regional finals makes it memorable. It was fun."
The Hawks are headed back to Columbus — and they certainly earned it.
