On a mild, misty Friday night, the Washington Blue Lions played host to the Hillsboro Indians for a Frontier Athletic Conference game. Washington won the game, 58-51.
For the Indians, senior Hunter Price led with 17 points. Senior Ethan Parry hit three three-point field goals and finished with 14 points.
Senior Reico Colter was the game’s leading scorer for Washington with 29 points.
“That’s kind of been our calling card,” Washington coach Shannon Bartruff said. “It’s good ball pressure and getting off and helping. At times we were really, really good. Then we gave up too many layups that let them hang around. I’m extremely pleased with our defensive effort. Hunter (Price) had 17, but I felt like he had to work for a lot of it. We didn’t give him much. He kind of got loose there in the fourth quarter.
“Isaiah Haithcock, you look at the stat sheet and he only has four points, but when Zay goes out and I put him on the (other team’s) best player the last three games and he does his job, he’s adding 10 or 15 points to our effort by shutting the other player down. (Price) will probably average in the mid-20s for most of the season. He’s probably an all-district player. Zay did the same thing against the Park kid from Unioto and he did an unbelievable job against (Bryson) Badgley (of McClain) the other night.”
Hillsboro coach Miles Burton said, “We are a very inexperienced team and I’m super proud of the way we battled. At times this is a very simple game; you have to make more baskets than they do and we weren’t able to do that tonight. It was not for a lack of effort. We made mistakes at times, don’t get me wrong. We’ll get back and clean that up. They weren’t effort mistakes. We’ll be better from this.
“Give Court House credit. Shannon does a great job and they were better than us tonight.”
Hillsboro hit the first bucket of the game, but Washington held a 14-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Washington led by as many as eight points early in the second quarter, but Hillsboro went on an 8-0 run and went in front, 24-20. Colter and Isaiah Haithcock scored before the half to tie the game, 24-24.
The Blue Lions retook the lead with a free throw from Wall and a three-point basket by Colter and held the lead the remainder of the game.
Washington led by as many as seven points, which was the margin at the end of the third quarter, 38-31.
The Blue Lions led by as many as 12 points in the early going of the fourth quarter.
Hillsboro pulled to within six points late, but time was not on their side as the Blue Lions emerged with a hard-fought victory.
The Blue Lions improved to 3-1 overall and 1-1 in the FAC.
Hillsboro fell to 2-2 overall, 2-1 in the FAC.
In other FAC games Friday, Chillicothe beat Miami Trace, 54-48 in overtime, and Jackson defeated McClain, 31-28.
In the junior-varsity game Friday, Washington beat Hillsboro, 34-30.
For Hillsboro, Steven Kibler led with 10 points, Nic Burns scored nine and Deegan Bloomfield scored eight.
In Friday’s freshman game, the Blue Lions rolled to a 47-21 victory.
Brayden Hunter led Hillsboro with 13 points.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
W 14 12 14 20 — 58
H 8 16 7 20 — 51
WASHINGTON — Reico Colter 6 (2)-11-29; John Wall 4 (2)-2-16; Brayden May 1-2-4; Raleigh Haithcock 0-1-1; Troy Thompson 0-0-0; Isaiah Haithcock 2-0-4; Rishaun Burns 2-0-4. TOTALS — 15 (4)-16-58. Free throw shooting: 16 of 26 for 62 percent. Three-point field goals: Colter, 2; Wall, 2. Field goal shooting: 19 of 48 for 40 percent. Turnovers: 7.
HILLSBORO — Ethan Parry 1 (3)-3-14; Tate Davis 0-0-0; Quintin Captain 3-0-6; Steven Kibler 0-0-0; Canaan Griffith 1 (2)-0-8; Jayse Middleton 0-2-2; Bryce Parson 2-2-6; Bentley Watson 0-0-0; Hunter Price 6 (1)-2-17; Nic Burns 0-0-0. TOTALS — 13 (6)-7-51. Free throw shooting: 7 of 7 for 100 percent. Three-point field goals: Parry, 3; Griffith, 2; Price. Field goal shooting: 19 of 52 for 37 percent. Turnovers: 15.
Chris Hoppes is the sports editor for the Record-Herald in Washington C.H.
