Falcons too much for Indians

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The Hillsboro Indians boys basketball team hosted South Central Ohio League opponent Clinton Massie on Tuesday night in its final game before the Holidays and was hoping to improve its record in the SCOL to 2-4. Massie came into the game winless in league play. The Falcons turned out to be too much for the Indians on the night as an off night for shooting for the home team lead to a 67-49 defeat.

The Falcons of Clinton Massie got out to a very quick start, scoring five points before the Indians could even react. Hillsboro was able to break into the scoring column but shooting woes hit early and often and Massie doubled their points in the first frame and led 22-11 after the first eight minutes.

The Indians turned the table a little in the second quarter and played right with their visiting foes, matching the Falcons point for point, each team tallying 14 points in the quarter. That took the game into the half with Massie still up 11 with the score at 36-25.

After the half, Hillsboro was able to finally outscore the Falcons, going 12-11 in the quarter to cut the lead to 10.

In the fourth, the Indians made a push to take back the lead, cutting the difference to single digits at one point, but they hit a dry spell later in the last frame which Massie took advantage of to pull back ahead and win the game 67-49.

“I had to use a timeout early in the first quarter because we had talked about energy before the game and I didn’t feel like our kids had it,” said Indians head coach Bruce Miles after the game. “In the pregame, I could just feel it. There was no energy out there and I told them we had to come out with high energy in the first two minutes and we just didn’t do that.

“We shot the ball extremely poorly tonight. We just didn’t get anything to fall. I felt like there was a lid on the basket and I know we had about 10 missed layups. When you play teams in our league and miss that many layups, that’s going to get you beat a lot of times. We didn’t do a good job of finishing at the rim, and credit Massie on their physicality, because we just didn’t finish on a lot of plays tonight.”

Next up for Hillsboro will be another home game on Tuesday, December 29 against cross-county school Fairfield.

“We’re going to give the guys a few days off here over the holiday; we have a bug going around that’s not good so it should give them some time to refresh,” said Miles. “Leesburg is a tough team and I hear that they may have been here tonight watching the game, so they know that the game is going to be competitive. We have to come out and execute better. We have to defend way better than what we’re doing right now.”

Box:

HHS – 11 14 12 12 – 49

CMHS – 22 14 11 20 – 67

Hillsboro: Kibler 3(2) 5/6 – 17; Ryan 2(1) 5/5 – 12; Mycroft 1 3/4 – 5; Deatley 2 – 4; Reed 1 2/2 – 4; Keets 1 2/2 – 4; Brown 1 0/2 – 2; Ward 1/3 – 1; Anderson 0/2 – 0. Totals: 11(3) 18/26 – 49.

Clinton-Massie: Uetretch 7(3) 1/4 – 24; Greathouse 3(2) 4/4 – 16; Wolf 2 4/6 – 8; Forge 1(1) 2/2 – 7; Deuler 1 2/3 – 4; Wess 2 0/2 – 4; Myers 1 0/1 – 2; Boyd 1 – 2. Totals: 18(6) 12/22 – 67.

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

Hillsboro’s Cameron Reed pushes the ball up the court after stealing the ball from Cinton Massie in Tuesday night’s game.
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2015/12/web1_CameronReed.jpgHillsboro’s Cameron Reed pushes the ball up the court after stealing the ball from Cinton Massie in Tuesday night’s game. Robert Stegbauer | The Times-Gazette

Josh Keets goes for two during Tuesday night’s contest with Massie.
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2015/12/web1_JoshKeets.jpgJosh Keets goes for two during Tuesday night’s contest with Massie. Robert Stegbauer | The Times-Gazette

By Robert Stegbauer

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