Lady Hawks survive Blazers’ barrage and emerge a 51-40 comeback winner

By DAVE MAST
holmescountyTICKET.com

If the Saturday, Feb. 7 contest between the Lady Hawks of Hiland and Hathaway Brown Blazers would have been a boxing match, it would have been something like the 1974 bout between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. Ali let Foreman pummel him like a punching bag for eight rounds before the “Greatest of All Time” took Foreman’s best then dished a bit of his own out to KO Foreman to retain the heavyweight title.

Hiland took everything Hathaway Brown had to offer in the first quarter, then laid siege defensively, dropping the Blazers by a 51-40 count with a huge flurry of long range adroitness.

The Blazers onslaught in the first quarter, or maybe more succinctly, Hannah’ Harlor’s roundhouse threes, had put Hiland in a stunning daze, down 16-5.

However, while the Lady Hawks may have been reeling, the one thing coach Dave Schlabach can do is adjust on the run, something Blazers coach Paul Barlow said his team did not do.

When the first quarter had ended, Hathaway Brown led 23-20, in a wild eight minutes that saw the Blazers make an unreal 6-of-6 treys, while Hiland canned 6-of-9.

“That first quarter was about as much fun as I have had in a game,” said Schlabach of the outpouring of points. Harlor was so impressive. We were doubling down on Dani Lawson in the paint, and she took full advantage.”

However, Schlabach maintained his rotation, adjusted defensively, and his Lady Hawks held Hathaway Brown to 17 points over the final three quarters.

When asked when the last time he could remember a Hiland team giving up 23 points in a quarter, Schlabach responded, “Maybe never.”

But with a pair of players out due to illness and injury, the Blazers were undermanned, and the Lady Hawks began wearing them down.

Hiland had cut the early 11 point deficit to three in a short span thanks to a pair of Angela Troyer 3-pointers.

When she hit a third to tie things up at 26, it was game on. Like Ali, Hiland had taken everything Hathaway Brown could throw, and now it was their turn to respond in kind.

Troyer’s fourth three of the half gave Hiland a 29-27 lead, the last time the Blazers would see the positive side of the scoreboard.

Early in the third quarter, Jessica Troyer made a steal and the ensuing lay-up and Lish Miller capped off a 9-0 run with a three ball that gave the Lady Hawks a 43-32 lead.

Harlor responded with her fifth three of the game, but Mackenzie Miller scored inside and Kennedy Schlabach hit a lay-up to push the lead back to 47-35.

The champ had stormed back, and the Blazers, much like Foreman, were simply too weary to respond. “With them having a couple kids out, it hurt their stamina and we took advantage of that,” said Schlabach. “I thought we really wore them down.”

While Harlor scored a game-high 24 points, it wasn’t the shooting star Hiland was worried about stopping, but rather Lawson, the 6-foot, 2-inch center. Schlabach said Miller and Rachel Horn did a remarkable job defending one-on-one once the Lady Hawks cut back on doubling down on Lawson.

Lawson scored a bucket early on, but did not make a bucket the rest of the way, scoring the rest of her seven points from the charity stripe. Jordan Elhindi added nine for the Blazers, who got all of their scoring from just three players.

Meanwhile, Hiland was again showing off its impressive depth. Schlabach scored 13 points to pace the Lady Hawks, connecting on three treys. Troyer added 12, all on the strength of her four 3-pointers.

Miller notched eight, while Megan Beachy, the team’s leading scorer, was held in check, scoring seven. However, Hiland posted 10 players in the scoring column, its depth the key to victory.

“That was nice balance,” said Schlabach. “Lish has come into her own on offense, and worked her way into a much bigger role. She gives us another legitimate scoring threat. And our defense really stepped up. Harlan was the only kid to score at all for them in the second half. It was a good game for them, and a good game for us to play. I felt like it was really the first time since Classic in the Country that we had our legs back.”

With a host of tough games over the past two weeks, Schlabach said they scaled back practice and provided some rest for several key players against some of the weaker teams last week.

“We showed a lot of energy,” said Schlabach. “Getting down early, that was a game in which we could have easily left disappointed. We showed some guts.”

The rebounding battle was locked at 29 apiece, a good thing for the undersized Hiland squad. Alex Troyer again led Hiland with five boards. Brittany Miller added four rebounds and four assists.

Hiland did force the Blazers into 24 turnovers, setting up some easy scores on the other end with its defensive prowess.

The win makes Hiland an impressive 19-1, as it heads down the home stretch and into the tournament, where it received the number one seed at the Super Sectional/District tournament in New Philadelphia.