WASHINGTON C.H. —On a cold Tuesday night, the Hillsboro Indians traveled up US 62 to take on the Washington Blue Lions in a Frontier Athletic Conference match-up.
The Indians pulled away from Washington to post a 53-42 victory.
Hillsboro junior Jakwon Clark was the game’s leading scorer with 15 points. He hit two three-point field goals.
Junior Brad Miller scored 11, senior Caleb Crawford and junior Ryan Scott each added eight points for Hillsboro.
For the Blue Lions, junior Mitch Lotz led with 14 points.
Senior Trevor Rarick scored 10 points and freshman Tanner Lemaster scored eight.
Lotz, Rarick and Lemaster each hit two three-point buckets for the Blue Lions.
The Blue Lions had their best offensive quarter at the start, taking a 16-12 lead after eight minutes of play.
Washington followed that up with a three-point second quarter to trail 20-19 at the half.
The game remained close through the third quarter with Washington scoring 12 and Hillsboro posting 10 points for a 31-30 Blue Lion lead heading into the final quarter.
The Indians won the fourth quarter, 23-11 to set the final score at 53-42.
Hillsboro outscored Washington 14-3 from the free throw line. The Indians were 12 of 15 from the line in the fourth quarter.
The Blue Lions were 3 of 7 from the line for the game.
“Obviously, we’re not in a position to make a lot of adjustments and changes because I’ve had one day with these kids,” Washington Blue Lion head coach Ryan Day said. “I was really pleased with our effort. Their attitudes were good.
“We can’t give up that many offensive rebounds and expect to win,” Day said. “We did pretty well (rebounding) in the first half. In the second half we just didn’t get the box-outs that we needed. So when we get those things cleaned up and get some more offenses installed, I think we’ll be in a lot better shape.”
“It’s going to be a battle every single night,” Hillsboro head coach Miles Burton said. “I’m just proud of our guys. They’ve been through a lot with injuries. I’m super proud of the way we handled adversity tonight. We just have to be more consistent.
“We’re going to have to get in the trenches and trust ourselves,” Burton said. “We still made a couple of defensive rotation mistakes, which we’ll have to clean up. We buckled down, especially in that second quarter.
“Jakwon probably has the biggest ceiling of any of the guys I’ve got,” Burton said. “He didn’t play much last year. Every day he gets so much better.”
Washington (0-5 overall, 0-2 FAC) will play at Chillicothe Friday night. The j-v game is first at 6 p.m.
Hillsboro is now 1-2 overall, 1-1 in the FAC.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
W 16 3 12 11 — 42
H 12 8 10 23 — 53
WASHINGTON — Karson Runk 1-2-4; Brice Cartwright 1 (1)-0-5; Drew Moats 0-0-0; Mitch Lotz 4 (2)-0-14; Tanner Lemaster 1 (2)-0-8; Ethan Rogers-Wright 0-1-1; Trevor Rarick 2 (2)-0-10. TOTALS — 9 (7)-7-42. Free throw shooting: 3 of 7 for 43 percent. Three-point field goals: Lotz, 2; Lemaster, 2; Rarick, 2; Cartwright.
HILLSBORO — Nick Lewis 0-0-0; Quintin Captain 1-0-2; Ryan Scott 2 (1)-1-8; Lawton Parry 0-0-0; Silas Simmons 0-0-0; Jakwon Clark 3 (2)-3-15; Hunter Price 2 (1)-2-9; Caleb Crawford 1 (1)-3-8; Brad Miller 3-5-11. TOTALS — 12 (5)-14-53. Free throw shooting: 14 of 19 for 74 percent. Three-point field goals: Clark, 2; Scott, Price, Crawford.
