WASHINGTON C.H. — Hillsboro put a damper on the Washington Blue Lions’ 2020-21 season-opener by jumping out to an early lead Tuesday and then coasting to a 67-40 Frontier Athletic Conference victory.
The game was moved from Hillsboro to Washington C.H. when Hillsboro High School had technical issues at its facility.
The game marked the return of Shannon Bartruff as Blue Lion head coach after having not coached the past two seasons.
The Indians jumped out to a 17-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.
By the half, Hillsboro was in front, 38-21.
After three quarters of play, Hillsboro led, 51-32.
Hillsboro had four players in double figures, led by senior Ryan Scott with 14. Senior Hunter Price scored 13, junior Quinton Captain had 12 points and senior Jakwon Clark scored 11.
Hillsboro made eight three-point field goals in the game, with Scott and Clark each hitting three.
For the Blue Lions, senior Micai Claggett and sophomore Tanner Lemaster shared scoring honors, each with nine points.
“It was interesting,” Bartruff said. “I told the kids in the locker room before the game that I really didn’t have pregame jitters, but it felt like I hadn’t done this for 10 years instead of two years. I’m coaching the jayvee and the varsity teams this year and being able to coach the jayvee game first kind of got me back in the flow. The in-game situations and thinking and subbing and doing the whole thing.”
“I’m excited,” Bartruff added. “We have a long way to go. We’re an extremely young team. Out of our 28 kids, 23 of them are freshmen and sophomores. We just have a lot of guys who don’t have a lot of varsity experience. We played a team tonight in Hillsboro that has a lot of varsity experience. They are big, strong, tough kids. They did the same thing to Wilmington the other night as they did to us tonight.
“We gave up 14 offensive rebounds and we had 27 turnovers. When you give a team that many extra possessions, it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to win. I’ll be interested to see how the guys respond tomorrow at practice.”
SCORE BY QUARTERS
W 8 13 11 8 — 40
H 17 21 13 16 — 67
WASHINGTON — John Wall 0-2-2; Brice Cartwright 1-0-2; Karson Runk 3-1-7; Micai Claggett 4-1-9; Titus Lotz 1-2-4; Raleigh Haithcock 1-0-2; Mitch Lotz 0 (1)-0-3; Traeton Johnson 1-0-2; Tanner Lemaster 4-1-9. TOTALS — 15 (1)-7-40. Free throw shooting: 7 of 9 for 78 percent. Three-point field goal: M. Lotz.
HILLSBORO — Ryan Scott 1 (3)-0-14; Jakwon Clark 1 (3)-0-11; Hunter Price 6-1-13; Quinton Captain 2 (1)-5-12; Brad Miller 3-0-6; Lawton Parry 1 (1)-1-6; Coltin Hunter 1-2-4; Jayse Middleton 0-0-0; Shane Sullivan 0-0-0; Blake Tira 0-1-1; Bryce Parsons 0-0-0; Canaan Griffith 0-0-0. TOTALS — 15 (8)-12-67. Free throw shooting: 12 of 17 for 71 percent. Three-point field goals: Scott, 3; Clark, 3; Captain, Parry.
Hillsboro drops jayvee game
In Tuesday’s jayvee game, the Blue Lions beat Hillsboro, 47-40.
John Wall was the game’s leading scorer for Washington with 17 points. Calum Brown was also in double figures with 12 points.
Canaan Griffith led Hillsboro with 16 points, including two threes. Korbin Adams scored eight, Jayse Middleton had six points, Nick Turner scored four and Bryce Parsons had two points.
Chris Hoppes is the sports editor for the Record-Herald in Washington C.H.
