The Wednesday night home regular season finale for Hillsboro certainly had an understandable buzz or hype about it. Once-beaten Blanchester and their junior scoring sensation Brayden Sipple (averaging over 34 points per game came to town). The much-anticipated match-up turned out to be a true barn burner with the Wildcats edging the Indians by the final score of 65-62.
.
HHS, despite a slow start in the first period, closed with a mini run of 8-2 to tie the visitors from Clinton County at 12-12. In fact, as the game progressed, the Wildcats simply could not deliver a knockout punch.
.
Blanchester, capitalizing on a slight run of their own, took a 28-22 lead at the intermission. The Wildcats looked to be on the verge of finally breaking the game open in the third stanza. However, the Indians responded once again with five straight points to close the gap to 43-37 (at the conclusion of the third period).
.
Then, the full house at HHS, was treated to a frantic 4th quarter that saw the two teams combining for 47 points- the Indians falling short by the 3 point margin.
.
Sophomore Hunter Price, the WSRW "player of the game" contributed 12 points to Hillsboro's attack. However it was his relentless defensive effort against the aforementioned Sipple that won the admiration of everyone. Price, shadowing Sipple's every move, held the Wildcat star to 13 points (one of his lowest outputs of the entire season). Meanwhile, Caleb Crawford added 18 points and Ryan Scott 17.
.
Overall, HHS had one of their finest floor games ---- making only 8 miscues.....but did NOT have one of their better shooting games. A prime example of their cold shooting was the difficulty in connecting from long range : the Indians only hit 8 of 38 attempts! The Indians will now begin to prepare for the State Tournament. They will play Unioto next Tuesday at Ross Southeastern HS at 6 : 15pm.