One look through the Hiland Lady Hawks roster, and a glance at them on the floor, and a person might think that Lady Hawks head coach Dave Schlabach may have done a little bit of fudging when it came to listing his players’ height.

Schlabach said that this year’s vertically challenged team may not be very tall, in fact, they are the smaller team on the floor on a nightly basis.

However, do not tell this group that height has anything to do with rebounding and playing perimeter defense.

That, would be a huge mistake.

Hiland used every inch it had to spare against a mighty big Reynoldsburg team in game seven of Classic in the Country Jan. 17, and picked up a very impressive 54-41 victory by doing what they do best.

Play angry.

“We’re winning these games because of the anger we play with,” said Schlabach. “If that ever changes, everything will change.”

Nothing changed on this night for the Lady Hawks.

However, getting to the 13 point advantage was anything but easy, despite the way things looked early on.

Led by Horn, who has developed an uncanny habit of knocking down key shots early this season, Hiland bolted to a 15-5 lead through one quarter. That lead actually grew by three points as Hiland scrapped and clawed, but Reynoldsburg didn’t become one of the most successful programs in the state by laying down and quitting, and the Raiders came roaring back.

The lead shrunk to 18-15, before Kennedy Schlabach hit a key triple to up the lead to 21-15. But by the half, Hiland’s lead had shrunk to one at 21-20.

Reynoldsburg then came out of the locker room staring down Salley, who made three straight hoops inside to give the Raiders a 26-23 advantage.

Schlabach rang up another connection from downtown to quickly give Hiland the lead back at 28-27.

Reynoldsburg would take a 30-29 lead, but Angela Troyer’s stick-back gave Hiland a 31-30 edge. Hiland would take a 36-31 lead into the fourth quarter, and never looked back.

Trailing by five, it seemed as though Reynoldsburg simply abandoned Salley and began firing from outside. By the time Schlabach drained two more 3-pointers, Hiland had upped its lead to 42-34. Hiland then imposed its will on Reynoldsburg, with the backing of a fired up home crowd, and won going away.

They had fended off the giants on their home turf.

They had done so by playing angry.

“It was exciting, because we knew it would be a difficult challenge, and it would be another opportunity to prove ourselves,” said Alex Troyer, who flings herself into the rebounding fray with abandon on a nightly basis.

“We knew we weren’t going to outmuscle them. It was going to be all will and hustle.”

In particular, the Lady Hawks had to deal with 6-foot-3-inch Jalynda Salley and 6-foot-two-inch Zaria McBride in the paint.

The giant Raiders came into the night out rebounding their opponent by an average of 21 rebounds per contest. Hiland left having fought, scrapped and hustled their way to a two-rebound edge on the night.

At one point in the third quarter, Salley dominated play, the Raiders hammering the ball inside relentless to take a three point lead, their only lad of the contest.

“They did a really good job in that second half to really pound the ball into Salley,” said Hiland coach Dave Schlabach.

At that point Schlabach changed his team’s full court press from man-to-man to a more run-and-jump, double-teaming press. It created some turnovers, and more importantly, it gave the Lady Hawks a shot of energy.

“Rachel Horn got a couple of steals in the back court, we came out of a time-out in a trap and Brittany Miller gets a steal, and our ramp-up of the pressure was a big difference.”

Hiland not only out rebounded Reynoldsburg 35-33, it also managed to handle the Raiders’ intense full court pressure, giving up just seven turnovers on the night.

“You can’t turn the ball over, you have to find people and work to get by them,” said freshman Kennedy Schlabach, who handled much of that pressure, and had just one turnover on the night.

Hiland played much like the well-oiled machine it has been all season in carving out a spotless 12-0 record to date.

But Schlabach told his players, they can not afford to rest on their laurels at any point.

“I told the kids we need to be extremely humble after this win,” said Schlabach. “If we ever start to think that we are really good, that’s when you stumble. We’ve got to stay humble and realize what kind of team we are, and that is why we’re successful.”

Schlabach led all scorers with 15, including four 3-pointers. Megan Beachy contineed her standout year with a 14-point effort, while Horn added 11. Salley finished with 13 for Reynoldsburg, with Courtney Purtell adding nine.

On the glass, where the Lady Hawks lived angry all night, Angela Troyer grabbed a game-high eight boards, with Alex Troyer adding six. Hiland held Salley without an offensive rebound.

It was an angry, hustling Lady Hawks team that turned that anger into serious joy with a monumental effort against one of the state’s best.