Lady Hawks win defensive battle at West Holmes with 48-29 win
The Lady Hawks relish every opportunity they get to play a quality opponent, and on Monday, Dec. 28, in the Dungeon at West Holmes, Hiland faced a formidable foe in the Lady Knights.But when West Holmes senior Lindsey Arnold picked up her fourth foul early in the third quarter and was forced to watch most of the second half from the bench, the Lady Knights were far less formidable, and far more vulnerable to the vaunted Hiland press.
Arnold picked up her fourth foul with West Holmes trailing the Lady Hawks by five, 21-16.
From that point on, Hiland went on a 27-13 run and cruised to a 48-29 triumph over the Lady Knights.
“Sooner or later, some of our other guards are going to have to step up,” West Holmes coach Lisa Patterson said. “We pretty much count on having her on the floor, and when she’s not, the inexperienced kids tend to get a little nervous. She wasn’t able to play the defense she’s capable of playing when she’s in foul trouble like that.”
A fact that was not missed by Hiland coach Dave Schlabach and his staff.
“West Holmes was so good defensively in the half court, if we didn’t create something, it was going to be a game to the wire,” Schlabach said. “We had to really pick up our full-court pressure.
“There’s no question, that (Arnold’s fourth foul) was really big,” the coach added. “She’s their leader and is a great player. We were able to change our press with her out of the game, and that kind of got us rolling.”
“We didn’t do a good job of handling their press,” Patterson said. “When Lindsey picked up her fourth foul and had to come out of the game, we needed some of the other guards to handle the basketball against their press. We were making poor choices.”
Arnold made her presence felt right from the start, draining a 3-pointer on the opening possession, and then scoring on a short jumper to give West Holmes a 5-0 lead midway through the first quarter.
Inside buckets by Katelyn Stuckey and McKenzie Miller, and stickback by Noelle Yoder gave Hiland a 6-5 lead late in the frame.
Bethany Molnar hit a jumper to give the Lady Knights a 7-6 lead after the opening eight minutes of action.
Stuckey put Hiland back on top, and Paige Asche split a pair of free throws to knot things at eight early in the second quarter. Hilary Weaver scored a three-point play to put the Lady Hawks ahead to stay. McKenzie Miller scored inside and Hiland led by five. The visitors took a 17-14 lead into the locker room at the half.
“This was a good battle. I thought West Holmes was very well prepared,” Schlabach said. “They had us really uncomfortable in the first half. Defensively against Noelle and Hilary, I thought (Jasmine) Troyer, Arnold and Justice Wright did a really nice job on our guards.”
After Arnold went to the bench with her fourth foul, Lindsy Snyder scored to trim Hiland’s lead to 21-18.
Jessica Stutzman scored on a stickback, and Yoder buried a triple off a turnover to give Hiland its biggest lead at 26-18. After another West Holmes turnover, Yoder struck again to give the Lady Hawks a 29-18 advantage.
Shelbie Henderson scored twice inside to trim Hiland’s lead back to 29-22, but Yoder hit a driving layup to give the Lady Hawks a 31-22 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
“This was a tough game for her to be in,” Schlabach said of Yoder. “I think she did a nice job, especially in the second half, of taking what the defense gave her.”
Yoder’s backcourt mate, Hilary Weaver, scored on back-to-back driving layups, and then drained a 3-pointer to stretch Hiland’s lead to 40-26.
Arrianna Schrock did some damage inside on the offensive glass and made the most of her time on the floor, canning five of six free throws, to keep West Holmes at bay, while adding a team-high seven rebounds.
“Arrianna Schrock came in and had two huge quarters for us,” Schlabach said. “As the season goes on, kids start to reach their potential, and tonight, Arrianna broke through. One by one, we’re starting to get kids to make plays for us.”
Schrock had been nursing an injury and got off to a slow start and has been working her way back into playing shape in JV games.
“Watching the film from this game last year I saw Arrianna, and I thought she could do some things athletically for us,” Schlabach said. “Unfortunately, the JV team lost a player tonight. We’re going to steal her for awhile. Constant competition for playing time on our team is a good thing. That’s how you get better.”
Yoder led all scorers with 15 points, including three-of-five from 3-point range.
Weaver was the only other player in double figures with 13. McKenzie Miller and Stuckey each added six for the winners. Schrock scored five, Stutzman two and Regan Miller split a pair of free throws to round out Hiland’s scoring.
Arnold led the Lady Knights with nine points. Paige Asche added eight. Shelbie Henderson added six points. Snyder, Mallori Vess and Molnar rounded out the scoring with two points apiece.
“The rivalry and everything, this game definitely had that tournament atmosphere feel to it,” Schlabach said. “The final score was not indicative of the battle that was going on out there. This was the type of game, that at the end of the year, we’ll be better because we played it.”
The West Holmes coach agreed with the tournament feel to the game.
“This was a tournament-type game, and hopefully, the girls will remember this feeling, and not want to experience this again,” Patterson said. “We’ll continue to work on some things, and get our inexperienced players some time to grow as we continue on with the second half of the season.”
The Hiland JV pulled out a 35-30 victory behind 12 points from Kendra Schlabach and seven from Sasha Goings. Haley Moniger scored 11 to lead West Holmes.