The Washington Lady Blue Lions held their 2018-19 season home opener on a cold, flurry-filled Monday evening.
It was also the Frontier Athletic Conference opener as Washington welcomed the Indians of Hillsboro High School.
The Lady Lions won the game going away, 61-26.
Washington is now 1-1 on the season after opening with a 69-57 loss to Gahanna Lincoln at the Gary West Memorial Tip-off Classic Friday afternoon.
Monday night, Washington senior Hannah Haithcock, having recently signed to play for the University of Southern Indiana, led the game with 19 points and 13 rebounds.
Junior Shawna Conger had 10 points for Washington, while junior Rayana Burns and senior Bre Taylor both scored nine points.
Junior Halli Wall added eight points for the Lady Lions.
Senior Lana Grover led Hillsboro with four three-point baskets for 12 points.
Washington had 22 rebounds, including 13 on the offensive boards.
“Hannah just did a tremendous job on the boards,” Washington head coach Samantha Leach said. “She had a double-double (double figures in scoring and rebounds) and she was perfect at the free throw line (4 of 4).
“I felt like we got off to a slow start,” Leach said. “We were timid. We weren’t making smart passes.
“I was really impressed with how we started the second half,” Leach said. “It was just a completely different mentality. We put a lot more pressure on the ball and were able to create some turnovers and convert on those turnovers.
“It was night and day, first half to the second half,” Leach said. “Overall, I was impressed with the effort. We had less than 10 turnovers. We did really well on the boards. We had a ton of steals and we did a good job of sharing the ball. We had eight different girls score for us tonight.”
Hillsboro led 3-0 and 6-4 thanks to early three-point buckets from Grover.
The game was tied, 7-7 with 2:43 to play in the first quarter.
The Lady Lions scored the next eight points to take a 15-7 lead after eight minutes of action.
For the game, Washington had a little over twice as many shot attempts as Hillsboro.
The Lady Lions outscored Hillsboro 17-10 in the second quarter for a 32-17 halftime lead.
Any hopes the Lady Indians had of keeping the game within reach were dashed in the third quarter as Washington scored 20 to the visitor’s three.
Washington really turned up the defensive pressure in the third quarter to help pull away from Hillsboro.
Unofficially, Hillsboro had 13 turnovers in the first half and 10 in the third quarter.
Hillsboro had (again, unofficially) 25 turnovers for the game to nine for Washington.
In the fourth quarter, the pressure was off and Washington went to its bench getting Abby Tackage, Aaralyne Estep and Jeleeya Smith some varsity playing time.
“I felt like we played fairly well in the first half,” Hillsboro head coach J.R. Moberly said. “We hit a couple of shots and built a little bit of a lead. But, then the ball quit falling for us.
“I wasn’t unhappy with the first half,” Moberly said. “We just have to make some shots. We haven’t done that through our last two scrimmages and today.
“In the second half, we didn’t handle their pressure,” Moberly said. “They’ve got a great ball club with good kids, good players. They do a lot of nice things. It was a tough test for us the first night out.”
Hillsboro is at Fayetteville Wednesday evening.
Washington will travel to Circleville Thursday with the j-v game starting at 5:30 p.m.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
W 15 17 20 9 — 61
H 7 10 3 6 — 26
WASHINGTON — Rayana Burns 4-1-9; Bre Taylor 3 (1)-0-9; Tabby Woods 0-0-0; Halli Wall 1 (2)-0-8; Shawna Conger 2 (2)-0-10; Maddy Jenkins 1-0-2; Hannah Haithcock 6 (1)-4-19; Abby Tackage 0-0-0; Aaralyne Estep 1-0-2; Jeleeya Smith 0-2-2. TOTALS — 18 (6)-7-61. Free throw shooting: 7 of 10 for 70 percent. Three-point field goals: Wall, 2; Conger, 2; Taylor, Haithcock. Field goal shooting: 24 of 57 for 42 percent. Turnovers: 9.
HILLSBORO — McKenzie Cosby 0-0-0; Gracie Dean 0 (1)-0-3; Kayden Watson 1-0-2; Kelsey Burns 0-1-1; Kira Watson 0-2-2; Josie Hopkins 1-0-2; Lana Grover 0 (4)-0-12; Karleigh Hopkins 0-1-1; Jordan Moberly 1-0-2; Christine Page 0-1-1. TOTALS — 3 (5)-5-26. Free throw shooting: 5 of 8 for 63 percent. Field goal shooting: 8 of 26 for 31 percent. Turnovers: 25.
