There was plenty of wins to go around for local hardwood teams, and Hiland’s Will Schlabach played the hero in a buzzer-beating victory that highlighted a busy week of action.
Garaway
The Lady Pirates of Garaway battled Strasburg to the wire before pulling out an exciting 42-40 victory. Strasburg darted out to a 16-11 lead in the early going, thanks to Madi Becker. Garaway bit into that lead, trimming the deficit to 22-19 at the break, but the Lady P’s got rolling in the third quarter, a quarter that eventually paved the way to victory.
A 13-4 quarter saw Garaway bear down on defense, but the Tigers were able to rally and make things very interesting in the end. Becker led all scorers with 16, with Emma Gilkerson and Amelia Spidell adding eight and seven points, respectively, for the Tigers. The Lady Pirates were paced by Chloe Hershberger’s 14 points including a pair of 3-pointers, and she also hauled down a game-high 10 rebounds. Lizzie Mullet added 10 points, Brooklyn Frey scored six points and grabbed seven boards, and Rylee Putt had a nice all-around game with nine points, four assists and four steals.
Garaway’s boys dropped to 3-5 on the season after a tough 54-49 overtime loss to host Sandy Valley. Zack Bickford led the Pirates with 25 points while Jarett Wallick was next in scoring with eight. Meech Evans led the Cardinals with 13 points, and Brady Russell also reached double figures with 12.
The Pirates then got to 4-5 by easily handling Newcomerstown 74-21. Garrett Newsome notched a career-high 15 points, Matthew Beachy added 13 and Brendan Chapman scored 11 for the Pirates.
The Garaway Pirates eighth-grade boys team moved to 10-0 with a win over the visiting Hiland Hawks in a physical battle the Pirates won 54-45. A game earlier the team defeated Strasburg 53-36. The Pirates were led in scoring by Raber with 19 while Gibson also hit double figures with 11.
Garaway was paced by Blaine Raber with 24 points while Trace Gibson added 18. The seventh-grade team collected a 39-28 win over Strasburg to improve to 5-4. Micah Yoder led all scorers with 15, and Kingman Bear added 11.
Hiland
Buzzer-beaters are what make legends, and Will Schlabach added his name to the list with a 3-pointer as time expired that gave Hiland’s boys team a 51-49 win over host Ridgewood. This one was tight throughout, and Ridgewood held their fate in their own hands, but a missed one-and-one free throw with five seconds left gave the Hawks (6-4) hope.
Having to go the length of the floor, two passes found the ball in Tony Yoder’s hands, and as he approached the 3-point arc, three Generals sped toward him, thinking he would fire the shot. Instead, he alertly passed to Schlabach, Hiland’s best shooter, who was left unattended, and Schlabach made the Generals pay by burying a trey as time expired.
The shot capped a terrific night for the Hiland senior, who scored 22 points, while Ryan Miller added 10. Ridgewood was bolstered by the return of Gabe Tingle, who poured in 17, while Kale Hamilton added 14 for the Generals (6-3).
Hiland continued its season-long string of close games with a pulsating 47-44 win over Sandy Valley that saw the Hawks fend off a torrid fourth-quarter effort by the Cardinals. Hiland led at every stop but saw a 36-23 lead to start the fourth quarter dwindle as the Cards hit from downtown. Hiland did just enough from the charity stripe in the final quarter, where it went 7-of-13. Schlabach paced the Hawks with 15 points, followed by Dylan Weaver’s 11, and Grant Miller scored seven and Ran Miller added six. SV got 11 from Brady Russell and 10 from Meech Evans.
In Hiland’s 63-54 loss to Triway on Jan. 12 in The Pit, Schlabach may have won the scoring battle, pouring in a career-high 33 points, but the Titans won the war, getting a monster game from Channer Wells, who notched 23 points and 13 rebounds in the win.
The Hawks fell behind 7-0, then trimmed the deficit to 13-12 through one period, but then they fell behind by 10 at the half. Several times the Hawks trimmed the Titans’ lead to five, but Wells and company kept Hiland at bay to move to 6-1 while Hiland fell to 7-5.
The Lady Hawks dismantled Sandy Valley 78-27, a win that marked the 100th-straight Inter-Valley Conference victory for Hiland with the average margin of victory being 57.8 points. This one was over in the first quarter when Hiland bolted to a 23-3 lead and never looked back. In the game, senior Zoe Miller broke her own school record with a 20-rebound night that went with her 16-point effort. Brynn Mullet led all scorers with 17 while Morgan Yoder added 14 and Kyli Horn had 12.
A much larger challenge faced Hiland when it took on mighty Canton McKinley, but the Bulldogs also proved to be no match for the Lady Hawks, who dealt out a 54-39 loss. Hiland blew open a tight 22-21 halftime lead by outscoring McKinley 32-18 after intermission. Hiland got 18 points and 12 boards from Zoe Miller, 10 points from Horn, nine points and five rebounds from Brynn Mullet, eight points from Ashley Mullet, and seven assists from Yoder. Hiland’s biggest advantage was from behind the arc, where the Lady Hawks hit seven triples compared to just one for the Bulldogs.
Jan. 9 saw the Lady Hawks deal Ridgewood a 93-10 loss, Hiland leading big early. Aila Miller had a monster game, scoring 15 points to go with five rebounds, but it was Horn who had a night, pouring in a career-high 27 points on 11-of-14 shooting and seven steals. Zoe Miller added 15, Morgan Yoder scored 10 and Jenna Troyer added nine.
West Holmes
The Knights boys basketball team continued their strong effort by capturing a 42-35 win over Lexington. The Knights varsity improved to 6-2 on the year with the victory over the Minutemen. Blake Morrison led the Knights in scoring with 10 points while Payton Miller and Peyton McKinney had eight points apiece. WHHS seized control with a strong second quarter that saw them push a four-point advantage to a 29-17 halftime lead.
On Jan. 8 the Knights continued to roll, defeating Madison 56-44. In the win WHHS improved to 7-2 and 3-2 in OCC play, getting 22 points off the bench from DeAndre Thomas with Morrison chipping in with 13.
The Knights trailed by one after one quarter, but a huge second quarter saw them take a 26-18 halftime lead. That lead grew to 41-28 as the Knights continued to play great defense, and West Holmes cruised to victory.
WHHS then got to 8-2 with an impressive 58-53 win over a scrappy Claymont team. McKinney dropped 17 points to lead the way while Morrison and Josh Shrock each scored 11 and Payton Miller added eight in the big win.
The Lady Knights dispensed of Lexington in an easy 59-33 win that saw another balanced attack from Lindsy Snyder’s crew. Katie Sprang netted 22 points including four 3-pointers to pace WHHS, getting help from Kinsey Patterson, who hit three treys in scoring 13 points. Claire Reynolds added nine; Alicia Alexander had six points, six assists and seven steals; Hannah Rohr scored five; Katrina Rolince doled out five assists; and Ella McMillen grabbed a game-high five rebounds.
The Lady Knights skipped out to a 14-6 lead through one period and just kept consistently adding to the lead until they exploded for 21 points in the final quarter to improve to 10-1 on the year.
