FRANKFORT – The Hillsboro Lady Indians traveled to Adena High School in Frankfort on Monday to take on the Lady Cavaliers of Chillicothe in a Sectional Semi-Final OHSAA girls varsity basketball tournament game. The Frontier Athletic Conference rivals have two prior faceoffs this season and the Lady Cavaliers completed the season sweep with a 52-31 victory over the Lady Indians.
Chillicothe took control early in the first quarter and quickly built a healthy lead with a mixture of outside shooting and ball movement that resulted in good looks near the basket as the cruised to an 11-0 lead after one.
The Lady Indians on the other hand were unable to get anything going offensively as they missed on every opportunity they got in the first quarter including back to back layups early in the quarter that seemed to suck the confidence out of the Hillsboro girls.
Chillicothe was able to push its lead to 16-0 with 3:54 remaining in the first half before Hillsboro’s Gracie Dean converted on a jumper.
Another layup by the Lady Cavaliers pushed their lead back to 16 and prompted a timeout by Lady Indian’s head coach JR Moberly with 2:50 to go in the second.
McKenzie Cosby netted a layup and Lana Grover converted one of two at the line after the time out and the Hillsboro defense was able to hold Chillicothe scoreless over the final minutes to provide a 18-5 game at halftime.
In the second half the Lady Indians started strong with Kelsey Burns and Cosby hitting layups and Grover connecting on a three pointer over the first five minutes as Hillsboro attempted to reel in the Lady Cavaliers.
A three pointer for Chillicothe followed by a steal and fast break layup pushed the Lady Cavaliers’ lead back to 18 points at 30-12 with three minutes to play in the third quarter.
Dean answered with a jumper and Grover hit her second triple of the quarter to trim the lead to 13 points for the second time in the quarter but the Lady Cavaliers answered with a three of their own to push their lead back to 16 points at 33-17 entering the fourth and final quarter of play.
Hillsboro tried valiantly to claw back in to the game but were unable to get the stops they needed on defense to get the job done as the Lady Cavaliers salted away the 52-31 win.
The Lady Indians will be back in action on Wednesday when they host FAC rivals the Jackson Lady Ironmen in a makeup game that was originally scheduled for Wednesday, January 16.
