Generals make a statement in 48-43 win over Lady Hawks
When the final buzzer went off, it was Wooster that had fulfilled its hopes, coming away with a 48-43 win that went down to the final seconds.
“It’s a big win for us, without question,” said Wooster coach Mike Baus. “It’s hard to come in here and win. (Hiland basketball) is a tradition, they are well coached, you walk in with the banners...but our girls wanted to play them. We wanted to up our schedule, and this is what a quality program is all about.”
The Lady Hawks raced out to a 9-2 lead to begin the game, only to watch the Generals claw their way back into contention over the course of the next several minutes of the first quarter and into the second. By the time Lauren Walker knocked down a free throw with just under two minutes to play in the half, the game was locked at 15. Halle Gallo-Malta drilled a three-pointer to spot Wooster to its first lead since it led 2-0, and Miller answered for Hiland with a jumper in the lane, before Sarah Cairnie gave Wooster a 20-17 halftime lead with a driving lay-up to end the half.
Halfway through the third quarter, Miller hit a long trey to even up the score at 24, but Wooster went to work, building a five point lead on a free throw by Walker, another lay-up by Cairnie and a Gallo-Malta pull-up jumper.
The two teams then traded buckets the rest of the way to the third quarter buzzer, and Wooster held a 32-27 edge.
After Jasmine Goings scored inside, Andrea Logee and Claire Ballard both hit from inside to give Wooster its biggest lead of the night at 36-29. Hiland’s Kendra Schlabach hit a triple to cut the lead to four, but Ballard scored after a full-court pass to make it 38-32.
That’s when things really started to get interesting.
With six minutes to play, Goings hit a pair of free throws to make it 38-34. After a Generals turnover, the Lady Hawks again went inside to their big post player, who was fouled and split a pair of free throws. A Wooster miss led to another two free throws for Goings, as Hiland continued to bang it down low, and the junior connected on both to make it a 38-37 Wooster lead with 5:08 to play.
But just like that, the lead ballooned back to six. Logee made a lay-up, Gallo-Malta scored inside and after Goings split a pair of charity tosses, Walker spun inside and scored, making it 44-38.
But it was far from game over.
Goings went to the line yet again, making both free throws, and after a Hiland steal on defense, Miller dropped in a bomb to make it 44-43, and the pace was going from hectic to frantic as both teams began picking up the other full court.
With just over one minute to play, Hiland’s trapping defense smothered Gallo-Malta at mid-court, Schlabach racing down the floor for an uncontested lay-up. But her effort banged off the glass too hard and fell off, Regan Miller was unable to pull down the rebound, and Wooster came away with the ball.
“It’s hard to think that that wouldn’t have had a big impact on the game,” said Hiland coach Dave Schlabach of the play. “During that time, I thought our kids really played hard and played to win. But I don’t know why we couldn’t play with that energy earlier.”
With the game now hanging in the balance, Wooster simply went to the well again, hammering the ball down to the blocks to Walker, who spun around a defender and made a short shot for a 46-43 Generals lead with 20 seconds to play.
Hiland had a shot at tying the score, but a Miller three-pointer skipped off the front of the iron, Logee getting the ball to Gallo-Malta, who was fouled. With just seconds left, Gallo-Malta calmly sunk both, hitting nothing but net, putting the game away.
After the 7-1 start to the year, Baus said his Generals are quietly gaining confidence, and this win is one that will continue to put wind in their sails.
With Walker and Gallo-Malta providing a two-pronged attack, Wooster was able to score both inside and out, Walker scoring 17, Gallo-Malta adding 14.
Of Walker’s effort, Baus said, “She is down on the block, active, looking for the ball. That is what you want from a player in a big game in a pressure situation. She had some big buckets down the stretch, and you can’t ask anything more from a player than that.”
Schlabach, on the other hand, saw his team lose its first of the season. The loss itself didn’t bother the two-decade coach of the Lady Hawks as much as did the fact that this kind of loss to a quality opponent has become too commonplace for the past two seasons.
“We played just good enough to lose, which has become this team’s MO,” said Schlabach. “That’s been us for two years. We beat bad teams and play just good enough to lose to good teams. We just got too few contributions from too many players. It’s too bad because it really spoiled a great effort by Jasmine and McKenzie.”
Miller, a senior headed to Ashland University next season, poured in a game-high 19 points, hitting on five three-pointers along the way. Goings proved to be dominant inside, scoring 16 points, including eight from the charity stripe, many of those coming in crunch time.
Unfortunately for Hiland, the rest of the team shot a paltry 3-of-19 from the floor, as compared to Wooster, which got help for its big two in the form of Cairnie and Ballard, who scored six and five respectively.
“We’ve got to have other kids step up and make plays, and we got zero help from anybody else out there tonight,” said Schlabach, who handed out high praise for Goings, a junior who has seen very little varsity time until this season. “Jas competes out there. She wants the basketball, and that right now is the biggest difference between her and everybody else out there. It’s a mentality and a confidence, and we need the rest of our kids to have that.”
On this night, one team got exactly what it wanted, while the other continues to search.
*****
Dave Schlabach’s team held true to form the following night, destroying Inter-Valley Conference foe Sandy Valley at the Reese Center 72-10. In that contest, Hiland picked apart the Cardinals, who are perched at the bottom of the IVC standings, scoring at will on offense while saving their best effort for the defensive end, where they held the Cardinals scoreless in the second half.
With no player recording more than 19 minutes of playing time, the scoring was well-balanced. McKenzie Miller led the way with 14 points and 11 rebounds, adding three assists and five steals. Kendra Schlabach added 12 points, all coming on three-pointers and Megan Hall added 10 points and eight boards, Regan Miller had a tremendous all-around game, scoring six points, hauling down four rebounds, dishing out seven assists and recording five steals. Emily Yoder added eight points and four steals and Rachel Horn chipped in with eight points.