HILLSBORO — The Hillsboro Indians hosted the Washington Blue Lions on Friday at Hillsboro High School in a match-up of Frontier Athletic Conference boys basketball teams and lost by a final score of 67-53.
“I’m just so excited for our guys,” said Washington head coach Connor Scott. “We had one league win last year and we have one league win this year.”
The first quarter was a back-and-forth affair that featured 10 lead changes and one tie as the Blue Lions secured a 14-13 lead heading into the second quarter.
In the second quarter Washington’s Dillon Steward scored 12 points to help the Blue Lions extend their lead to 31-22 at the halftime buzzer.
The Indians’ Mason Swayne and Ethan Watson combined to score seven points in the period as Hillsboro tried to keep the Blue Lions within reach.
After halftime Washington came out on a mission and quickly pushed their lead to double digits less than two minutes into the third quarter with the scoreboard reading 37-27.
Blaise Tayese and Steward each scored six points in the quarter for the Blue Lions and Evan Upthegrove added four of his own as Washington doubled their halftime lead to 14 points at 49-35 as the third quarter came to a close.
Brad Miller led the Indians in the third quarter with six points while Watson chipped in four of his own in a futile effort to keep the Indians in the game.
In the fourth quarter Washington was able to add to its already significant lead as Steward, Tayese and Upthegrove kept the pressure on the Indians and secured the 67-53 victory.
Washington forced 17 turnovers by the Indians that led to several easy buckets for the Blue Lions as they cruised to victory.
“I don’t know how to coach non-aggressive defense,” Scott said. “We want to get in you, we want to make you uncomfortable and when we can we want to jump in passing lanes and get in transition because you’ve seen our athletes; I want to be in transition.”
Steward led all scorers with 32 points and Watson had 11 to lead the Indians who also got solid contributions from Swayne and Josh Keets as each scored 10 points.
“Dillon is always on the verge of being out of control but he’s so athletic,” said Scott. “It’s like he almost turns it over and then, oh my gosh, he finishes an incredible layup and the thing that I am proud of him for is he is defending at a high level. He’s playing both sides and he was incredible tonight.”
Also for Washington, Blaise Tayese scored 13 points and Evan Upthegrove scored nine.
Washington will host the Chillicothe Cavaliers Tuesday (j-v starting at 6 p.m.) while Hillsboro will take on the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs at home on Saturday, December 8.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
H 13 11 11 18 — 53
W 14 17 18 18 — 67
HILLSBORO: Swayne 3(1)-1/2-10; Temple 2-4; Magulac 2(1)-0/2-7; (1)-3; Watsom 5-1/2-11; Keets 5-10; Miller 4-8. Totals: 21(3)-2/6-53.
WASHINGTON: Steward 13(1)-3/3-32; Upthegrove 1(1)-4/7-9; Matthews (1)-3; Tayese 5-3/5-13; Porter 2-1/2-5; Cartwright (1)-3; Burns 1-2. Totals: 22(4)-11/17-67.
