Blue Lions defeat Hillsboro on senior night, 77-53

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It was senior night for the Blue Lions (14-4) as they hosted Hillsboro (5-11) on Friday night in a Frontier Athletic Conference basketball contest.

Prior to the start of the varsity game, Washington honored their four senior basketball players: Michael Bearden, Raleigh Haithcock, Tanner Lemaster, and Brayden May. Senior Kyland Howard was honored as a team scout.

They also honored their senior cheerleaders: Ariana Bagheri, Morgan Cartwright, Addison Chambers, Madison Hayes, Tayler Jaeckels, and Kylee Jones.

The first quarter was tightly contested, with Washington holding onto a narrow 17-14 lead.

Early in the second quarter, the Blue Lions secured an offensive rebound from a missed free throw attempt and put it back in to give Washington a 22-16 lead. Seconds later, a charge was taken to give possession back to the Blue Lions. A layup from Tanner Lemaster on the ensuing possession extended the lead to 24-16. A few possessions later, Raleigh Haithcock knocked down a three from the wing to give Washington a 27-18 lead. A couple free throws from Lemaster, and layups from Brayden May, Michael Bearden, and Garrett Rickman helped Washington gain a 35-21 lead at the half.

The third quarter was a high scoring quarter for both teams, as Washington scored 20 and Hillsboro scored 19. The Blue Lions led 55-40 going into the fourth quarter.

Washington was able to extend their over the first few minutes of the final period, and with just under four minutes remaining, head coach Shannon Bartruff pulled his seniors from the game to a standing ovation from the home crowd.

The final score saw the Blue Lions with a senior night victory, 77-53.

Washington Blue Lion head coach Shannon Bartruff spoke after the victory.

“I feel like we were solid on defense, and we did a better job in the second half not giving up offensive rebounds. We basically got layups the whole night. Tanner did a great job in the second half. We did a good job finding him. I thought Michael was great tonight, he pushed the ball really well in transition which most teams can’t stick with him. When he makes good decisions, he just takes our team to another level. You could see kids in transition that have an angle on him, or may even be five or six feet of head, and he just floats by them. Garrett’s the same way. John Wall was phenomenal tonight, just a good, solid game and he did a great job defensively.”

He finished, “If we play hard and we share the ball, we’re tough. I thought we did that tonight. When we’re focused and we get the ball moving, it’s just tough to guard us because we’ve got kids who can shoot it, we’ve got kids who can drive it, we’ve got bigs inside, we can rebound it. It’s just a matter of them trusting each other and getting the ball moving. We’ve done that the last two or three weeks, so hopefully we can keep that going.”

Statistically for Washington, Lemaster led the team in scoring with 18 points, followed by John Wall with 16, Rickman with 13, May with 10, Raleigh Haithcock with seven, Isaiah Haithcock with five, and Bearden and Gabe Tayese with four points each.

Statistically for Hillsboro, Deegan Bloomfield and Bryce Parsons led the team with 12 points each, followed by Steven Kibler with 10, Nic Burns with nine, Tate Davis and Brayden Hunter with four, and Dorian Stewart with two.

Washington (15-4, 8-1 in the FAC) plays again on Tuesday on the road against Lynchburg-Clay (9-7) with a 7:30 p.m. varsity tip.

Hillsboro (5-12, 2-7 in the FAC) plays again on Saturday at Western Brown with the varsity tip set for 7:30 p.m.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

W 17 18 20 22 — 77

H 14 7 19 13 —53

WASHINGTON — Garrett Rickman 5 (1)-0-13; John Wall 6-4-16; Michael Bearden 1-2-4; Brayden May 0-2 (2)-0-10; Will Miller 0-0-0; Raleigh Haithcock 2 (1)-0-7; Gabe Tayese 2-0-4; Tanner Lemaster 7-4-18; Noah Haithcock 0-0-0; Isaiah Haithcock 2-1-5; Jacob Lindsey 0-0-0. TOTALS — 25 (4)-13-77. Free throw shooting: 13 of 20 for 65 percent. Three-point field goals: May 2, Rickman, R. Haithcock. Field goal shooting: 29 of 62 for 47 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 4 of 13 for 27 percent. Turnovers: 10. Rebounds: 27 (10 offensive). Assists: 15. Steals: 10. Blocked shots: 5.

HILLSBORO — Nic Burns 3 (1)-0-9; Brogan Priest 0-0-0; Tate Davis 1-2-4; Brayden Hunter 2-0-4; Steven Kibler 5-0-10; Garet Thompson 0-0-0; Dorian Stewart 1-0-2; Bryce Parsons 6-0-12; Deegan Bloomfield 2 (2)-2-12. TOTALS — 20 (3)-4-53. Free throw shooting: 4 of 5 for 80 percent. Three-point field goals: Bloomfield 2, Burns. Turnovers: 15.

In the j-v contest, Washington won 44-25.

Statistically for Washington, Jacob Lindsey led the team with 14 points, followed by Will Miller with 11, Gabe Tayese with eight, Javin Baker and Noah Haithcock with four, Jeston Everhart with two, and Jakob Hoosier with one point.

Statistically for Hillsboro, Brody Juillerat led the team with eight points, followed by Brayden Hunter with seven, Mason Dumpert with six, and Walker Pierce and Dom Smart with two points each.

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