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Hiland's Angela Troyer goes up for a loose ball with all kinds of Magnificat players.
Hiland Lady Hawks head coach Dave Schlabach has always liked to challenge his teams with a knock-out non-conference schedule that features some of the best teams in the state.
On Saturday, Nov. 21, his Lady Hawks greeted the 2015-2016 season with a big challenge in the mighty Magnificat Blue Streaks, an enormously gifted and tall Div. I team.
The results were not pretty, and Schlabach said those results were not totally unexpected.
“They were good and we were really bad,” said Schlabach of the 65-46 loss in the season opener for both teams. “We shot the ball extremely poorly. We are not a very good defensive team right now. We gave up 20 points in the first quarter, and we struggled to guard their two big scorers.
The first half saw Elise Keshock run rampant over Hiland’s defense. Schlabach reacted to that by putting defensive whiz Brittany Miller on the Blue Streak forward, and after scoring 20 points in the first half, Keshock scored just five with Miller on her.
Unfortunately for Hiland, Miller had to stop guarding high-scoring Phoebe Sterba, who went nuts in the second half en route to a 21-point effort that saw her hit five triples, four in the second half.
“They had two great scorers, and we put her on Keshock after the half, and she doesn’t score, but the other kid does,” said Schlabach.”
From a defensive standpoint, Hiland rarely allows any team to surpass 45 points in a game, and to give up 65 was hugely unusual.
“Last year’s team played like they had a chip on their shoulder, and this team has not,” said Schlabach. “This is going to be a very long season unless they figure that out.”
The two teams matched buckets early on, until Magnificat took an 8-6 lead on a pair of Sterba free throws. Abigail Adler hit a lay-up, Keshock knocked down a jumper and after she scored on a lay-in, the Blue Streaks had forged a 14-6 lead.
Hiland would play catch-up the entire first half, and although the Lady Hawks fell behind 29-14, they began chipping away, using defensive pressure out front.
Kennedy Schlabach hit a pair of free throws and then knocked down a runner after an Angela Troyer steal. The teams traded buckets until Schlabach hit Hiland’s first trey with 40 seconds left to make it a 37-29 half-time lead for the Blue Streaks.
“I felt pretty good at the half, considering we shot as poorly as we did,” said Coach Schlabach.
That good feeling wouldn’t last long, as Magnificat would make one major adjustment coming out of the locker room. Head coach Megan Hubach had her team come out in a zone, and with Hiland struggling mightily from the floor, it paid off.
“We hoped our size would come into play, even on the perimeter,” said Hubach. “I thought they got some pretty good looks in the second quarter, and they were getting shots they wanted, and we wanted to switch that up a bit. I thought our two-three zone did that for us.”
It did.
Angela Troyer hit a pair of free throws for Hiland to draw the Lady Hawks to within 39-31. Keshock scored inside, and after Jess Troyer drove inside for a score, Magnificat put the defensive zone into play.
A 13-2 run featuring three triples from Sterba lifted the lead to 52-35, and Hiland never could find the range from inside or out, where the Blue Streaks used their major height advantage to force Hiland into rushed and altered shots all game.
While Hiland struggled to a 30-percent shooting day, the Blue Streaks did not, settling in at a whopping 55 percent for the game.
“I thought our shot selection was really good today,” said Hubach. “We have been preaching that we need to have a better shot selection, and we can kind of see what that does for our scoring in a game like today.”
For Hiland, Magnificat’s length made life tough trying to shoot the rock, but Schlabach said that they better figure out how to deal with big teams because they will face several more of them throughout the course of the year.
Aside from the Sterba and Keshock show, Adler added seven and Lily Schwind scored six for Magnificat.
For Hiland, Angela Troyer scored a dozen, while Miller added 11, Schlabach pitched in with nine and Jessica Troyer added eight. While Hiland struggled, freshman Tiffany Weaver was the lone bright spot, scoring four points and hauling down a game-high 11 rebounds.
“She was a bright spot,” said Schlabach of the freshman.
What concerns Schlabach more than the loss, is the lack of fire and leadership from his team. That is something he said this team needs desperately.
“This game can be a wake-up call or a sign of things to come,” said Schlabach. “We are not a tough team mentally. We are searching a little bit for a style right now.”
It is only one game, but it is a game that Schlabach hopes will highlight some of the places his team needs to improve to become a team that can contend for a berth at state.
