Spirited Hawks find a way in battling injury obstacles

Sometimes basketball seasons come along that are picture-perfect, seasons in which teams don’t experience any setbacks and everything is peachy keen.

This isn’t one of those campaigns for Mark Schlabach’s Hiland Hawks.

Despite losing two of its top players late in the season to injury and struggling through a nearly team-wide shooting slump, the Hawks were able to continue to overcome all obstacles, and the obstacle in the Division IV East District semifinal game on Tuesday, March 5 at Buckeye Trail High School was an athletic and fast-paced Shadyside team.

Yet the Hawks managed to find a way to a 57-54 victory that came right down to the wire, with a last-second desperation shot from the corner from Shadyside banging off the rim, allowing Hiland and its faithful to finally take a breath.

Considering everything the Hawks have had to overcome this season, first with the loss of starting point guard Ashton Schrock for the season to begin the year and now with senior guard Connor Beachy, the team’s energizer, and vastly improved 6-foot, 8-inch center Alex Yoder both going down with leg injuries, it was a satisfying win.

“Our confidence has been shaken this year, with injuries and different things. Connor is our heart and soul the past two seasons, and Big Al is probably one of the most improved players in the state of Ohio this season,” Schlabach said. “You just don’t replace guys like that. You just piecemeal it together as much as you can and throw in different bodies. I thought we played a very gritty game. We’ve joked about how many different teams we’ve put on the floor this year, and that makes it a struggle to find a role.”

Not only did Hiland lose two of its stars, but also it lost both late in the season, first Yoder and then Beachy just prior to the tournament.

That left the Hiland coaching staff with precious little time to make any type of adjustments.

“When Al got hurt, we had a big week with Sandy Valley, Tusky Valley and Linsly, and we kind of won those games on pure adrenaline and anger,” Schlabach said. “Then Connor got hurt, and you could see our guys go, ‘Here we go again.’ That was a deflating loss for our guys, and we’re just starting to recover mentally and emotionally.”

What makes the two injuries even more difficult is both were senior leaders on the team, and Schlabach said replacing that is incredibly tough.

“It’s really tough to win in the tournament without seniors,” Schlabach said, noting the remaining senior of the three who began the season is a pretty strong option in All-Ohioan Sammy Detweiler.

“We’ve still got one,” Schlabach said. “But when you have all three of those guys, it’s a different animal. When you’re younger, you really don’t get what it truly means.”

Yet the Hawks who remain standing willed their way to a victory that was anything but easy, and in the process the team probably grew in new ways, and for a program that knows how to win year after year, hope remains high.

Hiland looked poised to run away and hide early, with two Nick Wigton treys giving the Hawks a 12-2 edge.

But from there on, it was an all-out brawl, with Shadyside’s Tyler Stotellmyer cashing in and bringing the Tigers back into the contest.

Sammy Detweiler and Wigton were soaring in the first half, Detweiler scoring a dozen points in the first quarter and Wigton ending the half with 12. However, Shadyside answered the bell at every turn and trailed just 30-27 at intermission.

From there on it was a free-for-all, with Hiland threatening to extend the lead and pull away and the Tigers answering back at every turn.

Shadyside employed a box-and-one zone on Detweiler in the second half and forced someone else to beat them.

That someone turned out to be Alex Miller, who scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half.

“We needed somebody to step up because of how much they were overloading on Sammy and Nick,” Schlabach said. “Alex had a big second half, and that was great for his confidence.”

The Hawks maintained a three- to five-point advantage throughout the fourth quarter, but Shadyside continued to press, and when Ben Wach hit a jumper with 93 seconds left to play, Hiland’s lead was trimmed to one at 53-52.

Detweiler then hit a key drive with 58 seconds left, but Wach was fouled on a 3-point attempt, managing to hit two of the charity tosses to get Shadyside back to within one with 49 seconds left.

Again, Detweiler would come up big, hitting two free throws with 28 ticks to go, setting the stage for a frantic finish. Shadyside ran the clock to 10 seconds and called timeout, and Hiland came out in a stifling defensive effort that took the ball out of the hands of the Tiger’s top scoring threats and forced Karl Tsoras to attempt a highly contested, off-balance 3-point shot from the right corner. The shot didn’t fall, and the Hawks had survived.

Hiland got 22 points from Detweiler and 20 from Wigton, with Miller adding a dozen, accounting for 54 of Hiland’s 57 points.