Hiland ‘picks its poison’ wisely and tops River 59-49 for district crown

By DAVE MAST
holmescountyTICKET.com

For Hiland Lady Hawks head coach Dave Schlabach, his team’s district final showdown with a 21-5 River team came down to one simple phrase: Pick your poison.

River senior and Ohio State University-bound star Jensen Ceretti can do it all, and stopping her in some capacity was paramount to a Hiland victory. Considering in the Pilots’ prior tournament game she had produced 27 points, 15 rebounds and recorded a monster 10 blocked shots for a rare high school triple-double, it’s easy to see that Ceretti can do it all.

Stopping her was the task assigned to the Lady Hawks in the Feb. 27 Div. IV district final game at Cambridge High School.

Schlabach chose to harass Ceretti all over the floor, double and often times triple-teaming her, forcing other Pilots to beat his team, and while Hiland (23-3) gave up some easy scores on the other side as it focused on Ceretti, it all came together in a 59-49 victory that earned Hiland its 13th district title since 2000.

“Ultimately, you have to give up something. We knew we had to pick our poison. Sometimes we wondered what the heck we were doing out there tonight. You just try to corral her as much as you possibly can,” said Schlabach of Ceretti. “Once you get in the game, you realize that she is even faster and more explosive than she looked on tape.”

The main player assigned to guard Ceretti first was senior guard Brittany Miller, who was giving up a good seven inches to Ceretti. However, Miller is as tenacious as they come, and wily too, and did a great job on the superstar. When it wasn’t Miller, it was Megan Beechy, who did an outstanding job of allowing Miller to take a breather.

“Brit has been our heart and soul, and she did a great job,” said Schlabach. “Megan came in and gave us some great minutes too. It was a real team effort.”

For a while, it was the other River players doing the damage. Lauren Flannery and Brielle Williams were scoring plenty early, mostly with lay-ups as Hiland focused on harassing Ceretti. After Miller proved she wasn’t just a defender but a scorer, canning a couple of 3-pointers to give the Lady Hawks a 10-9 edge, Flannery scored inside to give River an 11-10 lead. Morgan McMillen’s triple have Hiland a 13-11 lead after one, but River battled right back to claim the lead a18-17 in the second quarter.

River started its defensive effort with a box-and-ne on Kennedy Schlabach, but when Miller got hot, they quickly moved to a triangle-and-one. That left McMillen open, and did she ever reek havoc. Her and-one gave theLady Hawks a brief 22-20 lead, but Ceretti then went coast-t0-coast to knot things up.

It would be the last time River would be tied or ahead.

Schlabach hit two free throws, McMillen scored on a nice spin move and Angela Troyer split to charity tosses to put Hiland ahead 25-20. Bailey Caldwell hit tow free throws for River, but Hiland stormed right back, getting a Troyer jumper and 3-pointers from Miller and Schlabach. Ceretti hit from downtown to trim the Hiland lead to 33-25, but Miller hit her fourth trey of the half before the buzzer to spot Hiland to a 36-25 lead.

Hiland pushed that lead to 14 at 47-33 through three, and a pair of Schlabach triples advanced the lead to 53-37 mid way through the fourth. When Miller followed suit with another trifecta, it looked as though the Lady Hawks would cruise to victory, up 56-37.

But River would continue to fight, and crept to within 58-49, but Hiland’s deft ball handling and time were both against a comeback, and the Lady Hawks had earned their district title.

“We felt they had the best player on the floor, but we had the best team,” said Schlabach.

As for “holding” Ceretti to 17 points and 15 rebounds, Miller said, “It was a total team effort. We knew coming in she was going to be difficult to stop, but we tried like crazy to keep hounding her as much as possible to make her work for everything.”

Beechy, who didn’t score but grabbed four rebounds in addition to her stellar defensive effort, said, “I am not a scorer, but I absolutely love the challenge of coming in and stopping a team’s best player on defense. I know that is my role, and I want to do whatever it takes to help us win games.”

Miller used five 3-pointers to produce 21 points and grabbed six boards and four assists, while McMillen added 16 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Schlabach scored most of her 14 points in the second half, while Troyer was held in check, scoring five.

Aside form Ceretti’s performance, Flannery and Williams both scored 10, while Riley Lollathin added six. Hiand won the battle on the glass 37-31, but really won the game behind the arc, where it outscored River 27-3.

The game plan to pick their poison and force the other River players to beat them turned out to be a great decision for Schlabach and the Lady Hawks. They chose wisely, and therefore will be moving on to yet another regional tilt, something the Hiland program has become quite used to since Schlabach took over a quarter-century ago.