Soaring Hawks fly past Jets, 65-26

Times Reporter Report

UHRICHSVILLE — State-ranked Hiland grounded the Union Local Jets Wednesday in the Division III East District Tournament Semifinal at Claymont High School.

Powered by the one-two punch of Zoe Miller (14 points) and Morgan Yoder (10), the high-flying Hawks soared to a 65-26 victory.

The win advances the Hawks (23-2), ranked No. 3 in the final state girls basketball poll, to Saturday's East District championship contest. Hiland will take on Buckeye Trail at 2 p.m. Saturday at a site to be determined. The No. 7 seed Warriors knocked off No. 4 seed Sandy Valley 44-26 at Ridgewood Wednesday night.

Brynn Mullet came off the bench and provided some offensive pop, scoring seven of her 11 in the first quarter, to go with Miller's nine and Yoder's seven in the opening stanza, as the Hawks opened up a 25-4 lead and never looked back.

In the second quarter, Kyli Horn (9 points) got in on the act, drilling a pair of 3-pointers to help Hiland stretch its lead to 40-11 at intermission. Horn hit her third triple in the third quarter for all nine of her points from beyond the arc.

Aila Miller (7 points) and Kendra Shetler (7) went to work inside in the third quarter for the bulk of their points.

Union Local bows out at 14-10.

"We felt our pressure would bother them," Hiland head coach Dave Schlabach said. "We wanted to let the girls loose a little tonight. We haven't been able to do that the last couple games."

Schlabach also was pleased with his squad's balanced attack.

"The scoring was balanced, which is nice," Schlabach said. "We had a lot of kids contribute. We're still trying to develop that depth every day. I felt we got that today."

Schlabach pointed out that as long as players continue to fill their roles, the Hawks will do well.

"Kyli (Horn) has to hit shots. That's her role," he said. "Krista Troyer comes off the bench and gets us a lot of steals on the wing, and Aila (Miller) comes in and gets you some rebounds. Our kids need to fill their roles and do their thing. Morgan (Yoder) did another good job of running the show. It was a good night."