Hawks soar past Warriors for district championship

By KEVIN SUTTON
Times Reporter

GNADENHUTTEN — Entering Saturday's Division III district championship game at Indian Valley High School, Buckeye Trail High was looking for a fast start in their matchup with state-ranked Hiland in hopes of pulling the upset.

After all, Hiland was the top-seed and had already recorded a pair of regular season victories over the Warriors.

Unfortunately for the Warriors, it was the 24-3 Hawks who bolted from the starting gate to grab firm control of the momentum with a 14-0 run to open the contest. Hiland went on to win 59-24.

"We tried to play man early and we just could not match up," Buckeye Trail head coach Chris Starr explained. "Size-wise they just posted us up and put us in a big hole early.

"Add to that, we turned it over too many times and they hit some big shots. Let's face it, they are just really good ... they are tough to deal with. That's why they are as successful as they are."

In the other Division III district final, Morgan edged Bellaire 46-44. The Raiders will join Hiland in this week's D-II regional in Logan on Wednesday. Hiland plays Albany Alexander at 6:15 p.m. and Morgan meets Wheelersburg at 8 p.m. Albany Alexander beat Lynchburg Clay 54-45 on Saturday.

Buckeye Trail failed to get on the scoreboard until the 3:34 mark with a bucket from junior Sam Canner to make it 14-2. Sophomore point guard Ashleigh Wheeler added a triple for the Warriors, who trailed 18-5 after the first period.

Making things even more difficult was the swarming Hiland defense that forced a total of nine first-quarter turnovers.

"Really, offensively I thought we played pretty well early," Starr said. "We just could not make a shot, which is something we need to improve on moving forward. We just need to become a little better shooting team to compete with the upper-echelon teams like Hiland."

Hiland continued to flex its muscle in the second stanza, using a lopsided 25-8 scoring advantage to extend its lead to 43-13 at halftime.

Morgan Yoder paced the Hawks in the period with 10 points, including a pair of treys, with Kyli Horn adding five markers.

Trail's limited offense in the second quarter included buckets from Canner, Wheeler, junior Katie Clipper and junior Joley Wildes.

Offense slowed in the third quarter with Hiland securing a 10-6 scoring advantage to lead comfortably at 53-19 entering the final period.

With reserves seeing plenty of floor time in the final quarter, the Hawks closed out the district championship by outscoring Buckeye Trail by a 6-5 margin for the 59-24 win.

Hiland's Yoder finished with a game-high 16 points, while Brynn Mullet added 10. Zoe Miller chipped in seven for the winners.

Trail was led by Wheeler's eight points, while Canner finished with six points and a team-high five rebounds.

Despite the tough loss to close the season, Buckeye Trail completed a successful campaign with a final record of 19-6. Included in that total was a Division-III sectional championship and being district runner-up.

"I thought our girls played really hard ... the effort was outstanding today," Starr said. "I was really happy ...

"We've got a really nice team, and our depth is probably our biggest weakness overall, but our girls have improved from last year and hopefully we can just keep getting better," Starr said. "We will have everybody back next year, which is a huge plus. We don't lose anyone, so next year we will look to be even better and make a deeper tournament run."