HHS falls in tourney

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The Hillsboro Lady Indians’ season came to a heartbreaking end on Monday night inside the Adena High School gymnasium as they fell to the Logan Elm Lady Braves 50-45.

Hillsboro was the No. 9 seed going up against the No. 8 seeded Logan Elm as the evening started and as the game started, the Lady Braves got out to a decent sized lead, outscoring the Lady Indians 15-9 in the first eight minutes.

In the second quarter, the Lady Indians got their feet under them and turned the tables on their opponents scoring 13 points to Logan Elm’s seven to tie the game at 22 points a piece going into the half.

Hillsboro’s Madison Snyder, who led the Lady Indians with 17 points, started the second half off with a bang, making a layup against contact and finishing off the old fashioned three point play at the line by sinking the free throw. On Hillsboro’s next possession, Natalie Sullivan added a jump shot from the corner to put the Lady Indians up by five 27-22.

After the mini-run by Hillsboro, the Lady Braves finally started their scoring, and over the next three minutes, went on a 6-0 run to go back up 28-27.

Hillsboro’s Lana Grover stopped that run dead in its track with a three pointer to give Hillsboro back the lead with 3:16 to play in the third frame, but Logan Elm answered a minute later tying the game with a layup to make it 30 all. This basket was followed up by two made free throws by Logan Elm, but Snyder made another shot under the basket to tie the game once again. The Lady Braves finished off their third quarter scoring in a big way with a three pointer to bring their total to 35, but Hillsboro brought the game back to within two points as Sydney Bobbitt went 1-for-2 at the free throw line and as the buzzer sounded, it was 35-33 in favor of Logan Elm.

Madison Snyder started the fourth and final quarter with a made free throw to trim Logan Elm’s lead to just one. Unfortunately, that was the closest the Lady Indians would get in the fourth quarter, as Logan Elm was able to stay just ahead of the Hillsboro squad.

Things were looking bright towards the end of regulation as the Lady Indians had started to foul to extend the game. With 21 seconds to go, a Logan Elm player was fouled and sent to the line and was only able to make one of her free throws. Hillsboro quickly got the ball down the floor and the ball ended up in Madison Marsh’s hands and she put up a three pointer that found nothing but the bottom of the net to bring the Lady Indians back to within two points. Logan Elm, after being fouled again by Hillsboro, was able to only make just one of the two free throws, and with 8 seconds left, the Lady Indians were only down two points. However, the Hillsboro girls could not find a way to get the ball to the other end of the floor and the Lady Braves sunk two more free throws with 3 seconds left, putting the nail in the coffin and bringing the game to its final score of 50-45.

“We got out to defend [Logan Elm’s] shooters a little better there in the second quarter,” said Hillsboro’s head coach JR Moberly after the game. “We got a couple of shots to fall as well. They hit those three threes on us in the first quarter, otherwise, we’re not having to dig out of a hole at that point.

“We talked about the first three minutes of the third quarter at halftime being where people go out to win a ball game. The way we started there I thought ‘this is awesome we’re in a good position’. But then it kind of fell apart for us.

“Madison [Snyder] has been our workhorse down there in the paint all year. She’s played one-on-two and one-on-three all year long. If I was playing against us, I would challenge our young guards to make shots and beat us and take Snyder out of it. That’s what most people did all year long and that was the gameplan against us here tonight.

“I don’t know how many shots we had roll around and pop out. It was just one of those nights

“Our seniors have been great. We’ve only had the opportunity to coach Hanna Breeden this year. It has been a blessing to have coached her. She’s just a good kid. It was good to see her get out and compete on the basketball floor this year. Lilly McCleese sacrificed for us this year and agreed to put some time in at the jayvee level, otherwise, we may not have been able to finish our JV season. We have a lot of kids that got extra minutes this year because she was willing to that. She’s a super kid. As far as Madison Snyder, I could talk all day and still not say all the right things. We’ll miss her a great deal, not just because of what she does on the basketball court, but just the kind of kid she is. If you’re going to rebuild a program, you want to try and have her around to set that kind of example. She always has her book around studying. She’s a 4.5 student and just got accepted into Ohio Northern’s Pharmacy school. She got accepted into every one she applied to, but that’s the one she wanted. I’d take a whole team of these seniors. We might not be able to get the ball up and down the floor, but they’d be fun to watch.”

Box:

LHS – 15 7 13 15 – 50

HHS – 9 13 11 12 – 45

Hillsboro: Snyder 5 7/11 – 17; Moberly 3(1) 0/1 – 9; Grover (2) – 6; Marsh 1(1) – 5; Sullivan 2 0/2 – 4; Jamieson (1) 0/2 – 3; Bobbitt 1/2 – 1. Totals: 11(5) 8/18 – 45.

Logan Elm: Campbell 3(3) 5/6 – 20; Willard 3 5/9 – 11; Vanhoose (3) – 6; Alderman 2 – 4; Haupt 2 – 4; Lucas 1 1/2 – 3; Jones 1 – 2. Totals: 15(3) 11/17 – 50.

Reach Robert Stegbauer at 937-393-3456 ext. 1679 or on Twitter @RStegbauer.

Hillsboro’s Riley Moberly takes a jumper as two Logan Elm players defend in Monday night’s tournament game at Adena High School.
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2016/02/web1_Moberly.jpgHillsboro’s Riley Moberly takes a jumper as two Logan Elm players defend in Monday night’s tournament game at Adena High School. Robert Stegbauer | The Times-Gazette

By Robert Stegbauer

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