HILAND PUTS END TO WEST HOLMES' 33-GAME WIN STREAK

By AARON DORKSEN
Daily Record Sports Editor

BERLIN — The Battle for Holmes County is a chance for girls basketball players to step into the spotlight like few, if any, other places in Ohio.

"I got here at 4:30 and there was already a line of West Holmes people out the door," 24th-year Hiland coach Dave Schlabach said. "I love it."

Schlabach loved what he saw on the floor even more at the Perry Reese Center Saturday night. Rather than a few Hawks playing starring roles in the prime-time matchup, it was a complete team effort that enabled Hiland to defeat archrival West Holmes 53-40 in front of a packed gym.

The Hawks (4-0) won in the battle of unbeatens as the defending Div. II state champion Knights (4-1) had a 33-game winning streak snapped.

"We don't have a superstar, but we have a lot of kids who work hard," Schlabach said. "Everybody kept asking me, 'Hey, what's your team's identity?' I think the word is balance this year."

Ten Hawks played seven or more minutes, seven scored and eight grabbed a rebound. Schlabach didn't even know where to start when handing out postgame praise.

Junior Brittany Miller led Hiland with 11 points, while right behind was senior Megan Beachy with 10, followed by senior Rachel Horn and freshman Kennedy Schlabach with nine each. Miller, Angela Troyer and Beachy led the way with five rebounds apiece.

Horn was 3 for 4 on 3-pointers after being unable to connect from long range in the first three games, helping Hiland to a critical 7 for 18 effort from beyond the arc.

When Horn started the game 2 for 2 on treys and then Jessica Troyer banked in a trey from the wing for a quick 9-0 lead, it looked like it might be the Hawks' night.

Schlabach called it "probably the best (Horn) has played." He commended the other aforementioned girls as well, and then noted that sophomore Jessica Troyer (7 points) and freshman Sara Keim (5 points, 4 rebounds) had been on the JV last week. Senior Alex Troyer (4 rebounds, 2 assists) also came up with some big "hustle plays," Schlabach said.

"A lot went into this game," Schlabach said. "For the first time we approached it like a tournament scout.

"We spent three days preparing and we like to see if our teams can handle a lot of information. Then, we had 10 kids that didn't play in this game last year that we played, so we wanted to see how they'd respond. And then you've got the rivalry thing."

West Holmes trailed 9-4 after one quarter, but both teams picked it up in the second period as the Hawks took a 21-18 lead at the break. Knights senior Alex Starr, whose 20 points accounted for half her team's scoring total, connected on one of her four 3-pointers to cut the margin to 23-21 early in the third quarter but Hiland closed the period with a 7-0 run.

The Knights, who shot just 16 for 52 from the floor, could never get the margin closer than six. Junior Hannah Clark scored nine points for the West Holmes, but struggled to connect on her many shot attempts and Alex Brown's five points were the team's next best total. Starr paced the Knights with nine rebounds, but the Hawks had a slight edge on the boards at 31-28.

"We've been struggling with (shooting)," said West Holmes coach Lisa Patterson, whose team graduated its top three players from last season's title winner and had 6-foot standout Brittleigh Macaulay limited to just a few minutes as she recovers from an illness. "Other than the first game, we've not shot the ball particularly well. It's gonna happen and you've just gotta play through it and hope your defense wins you some games."

Patterson said the defense let the team down early, as the Knights wound up trying to double-team Hiland guards on the perimeter instead of fighting through picks. It led to a number of wide-open looks.

"I was a little disappointed in our defense," Patterson said. "We had established what we were going to do defensively and we didn't exactly follow through."

The lessons learned from the latest installment of the Battle for Holmes County, which West Holmes now leads 17-13, should serve both teams well going forward.

"It's Holmes County — two teams and they fill a gym up for girls basketball," Patterson said. "Tell me another county in the state of Ohio that does that. It's just a tremendous community we live in and I remind the girls of that all the time. They're lucky where they are and I think they know it.

"A game like this you want to experience and you want to learn from it. This is definitely a film that we'll watch and dissect and figure out where things went wrong. The kids played hard and give credit to Hiland."

Schlabach said that to have a great rivalry, both teams have to win some games as it goes on. That's certainly been the case between the two programs, which have four state titles apiece and a combined 21 Final Four trips.

"It's been about 5-5 the last 10 years and it's been a heated rivalry, a lot of respect, maybe a little dislike, and that's what a rivalry is about," Schlabach said. "Usually this game is at the end of the year and is a great tournament introduction, but I liked it because it gave us a great measuring stick early."