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For one half, the Garaway Lady Pirates did everything within their will to hang in against the state’s top team in Div. IV, the Hiland Lady Hawks. But a lucky bounce, and typical Hiland run and an inspirational defensive effort in the second half paved the way for Hiland to end it’s undefeated Inter-Valley Conference run with a 62-26 win Saturday, February 11 at the Reese Center at Hiland High School.
It took a great team effort for Hiland to pull away in the second half, and the Lady Hawks turned their defensive prowess into some easy points on the other end to do so.
“A nine-point defensive half, we are excited about that,” said Hiland coach Dave Schlabach of his team’s lock-down defensive effort in the second half. “We hadn’t played well defensively the last week or so, so we feel good we were able to lock it down again.”
Garaway did a good job of doing what it wanted to do throughout the first half. The Lady Pirates were patient, and while they did have some turnovers in the first quarter, they kept it close. After Angela’ Troyer’s three-ball gave Hiland a 5-0 lead, Garaway dug in, and Hiland began missing some shots from inside that it normally makes. When Kaitlyn Stress and Sydney Mullet each canned 3-pointers, Garaway led 8-6.
“We did what we wanted to do in the first half,” said Garaway coach Dave Shutt. “Other than a couple of missed shots and a couple of turnovers in the first half, it was about as close to perfection as to what we wanted to do.”
Angela Troyer busted a jumper and Sara Keim drained a trey to give the Lady Hawks the lead back, and Hiland held a slim 12-10 advantage through one quarter.
The second quarter was much like the first, with Hiland missing some easy shots and Garaway taking better care of the ball and being patient.
“These guys (his assistant coaches) were keeping me sane. They were saying at least we were getting good shots,” Schlabach said with a laugh of the misses. “Garaway came out and did a nice job of spreading us out. I’m glad we saw that.”
Madeline Smith’s jumper drew the Lady Pirates within 19-16, before Hiland did what it does best in producing key runs.
Morgan McMillen split a pair of free throws, Melissa Hostetler scored inside, and with time running down, Garaway forced Hiland’s Kennedy Schlabach, who was scoreless up to that point, to hoist a desperation three from deeper than she would have liked. The ball hit the back iron, ricocheted up above the top of the backboard, and somehow nestled into the net to end the half with Hiland leading 25-16.
“That definitely deflated them a bit,” Schlabach said.
Hiland came out of the locker room with a lot more determination from a defensive standpoint, and it turned into the biggest stretch in the game.
Tiffany Weaver grabbed an offensive board and earned herself an and-one, McMillen hit two free throws, Weaver scored again inside and Schlabach found McMillen with a great assist, and suddenly it was 34-16. Garaway took a time-out, but the damage had been done, Hiland having reeled off a 15-0 spurt.
“We gave up three or four offensive rebounds, and those led to and-ones, and we really couldn’t stop the bleeding.”
The third quarter continued to be a Garaway nightmare. Kallie Regula split two free throws and hit a jumper for Garaway but Hiland countered with five points from McMillen, a triple from Angela Troyer and Hostetler’s score in the paint.
Hiland led 47-21 at the end of three, and after Mullet scored and Angela Troyer hit two free throws, Shutt drove, collected her miss and stuck it back in for an and-one to make it 49-26.
That seemed to make Hiland dig deeper, and Garaway began running out of gas. The Lady Hawks scored the game’s final 13 points, the final six coming on a pair of 3-pointers from Kim Miller.
Garaway did a commendable job shutting down Hiland’s big three. Troyer ended with 13 points, McMillen scored 10 and Schlabach ended with just three. However, Hiland’s depth was on display. Weaver scored nine points while chalking up 10 boards and two blocked shots, Keim came off the bench to score eight, Miller added six and Jess Troyer, who did a great job in defending Mullet, added five.
“Kennedy and Morgan had one field goal at the end of the first half, and that one hit the ceiling,” Schlabach said. “That should give our Kennedy, Morgan and Angie confidence that they don’t have to score.”
For the Lady Pirates, Shutt and Mullet both notched seven points and Regula added five. Hiland held a commanding 45-27 edge on the glass, and the Lady Hawks only turned the ball over six times compared to 20 for Garaway.
“They are good for a reason,” Shutt said of Hiland. “We told the kids that if they can battle this team like they did for a half, we can do it down the road.”
Garaway has dropped three of its last six to fall to 16-6 (12-4 in the IVC), but those losses have come to Hiland, Ridgewood and Malvern, three talented IVC teams who should do well in the tournament.
Shutt said despite the losses, those games have done well to prepare them for tournament play.
“We now get a little time off, can rest our legs and get after it in the tournament,” Shutt said. “We’ve been tested lately, and It’s only going to help us.”
*****Beginning the 2002-2003 season, the Lady Hawks owned a slim 32-30 advantage over Garaway in their overall series. Since that time, Hiland has gone 26-4 to dominate this backyard rival.
*****How good is the Hiland Lady Hawks basketball program top to bottom, this win makes the varsity team 21-1. That might sound pretty great, but that one loss signifies the only loss Hiland has this year, their junior varsity team going undefeated, their seventh-grade team going undefeated and winning the league championship and the eight-grade team currently undefeated and playing in the conference title game. That means the program is currently 81-1 this year.
*****The Inter-Valley Conference title is Hiland’s 22nd consecutive title. That is an amazing stretch of league championships. The last time Hiland was defeated in league play was during Angela Troyer’s sophomore season two years ago, when the Lady Pirates dealt them a loss.
