On a mild (for December), misty Friday night, the Washington Blue Lions played host to the Hillsboro Indians for a Frontier Athletic Conference game.
Washington won the game, 58-51.
Senior Reico Colter was the game’s leading scorer for Washington with 29 points.
Sophomore John Wall added 16 points. Both players hit two three-point field goals.
Senior Rishaun Burns, junior Brayden May and sophomore Isaiah Haithcock each scored four points and junior Raleigh Haithcock scored one.
For the Indians, senior Hunter Price led with 17 points. Senior Ethan Parry hit three three-point field goals and finished with 14 points.
“That’s kind of been our calling card,” Washington head coach Shannon Bartruff said. “It’s good ball pressure and getting off and helping. At times we were really, really good. Then we gave up too many lay-ups that let them hang around.
“I’m extremely pleased with our defensive effort,” Bartruff said. “Hunter (Price) had 17, but I felt like he had to work for a lot of it. We didn’t give him much. He kind of got loose there in the fourth quarter.
“Isaiah Haithcock, you look at the stat sheet and he only has four points, but when Zay goes out and I put him on the (other team’s) best player the last three games and he does his job, he’s adding 10 or 15 points to our effort by shutting the other player down. (Price) will probably average in the mid-20’s for most of the season. He’s probably an All-District player. Zay did the same thing against the Park kid from Unioto and he did an unbelievable job against (Bryson) Badgley (of McClain) the other night.”
Bartruff spoke about John Wall.
“John is a heady player,” Bartruff said. “He can knock down shots. He’s deceivingly quick. He can find those tight spots and he’s a good finisher around the bucket. What I love about John as much as anything is his tenacity. He’s one of our best on-ball defenders. He does everything we ask him to do. He’s growing up right before our eyes.”
“We are a very inexperience team and I’m super proud of the way we battled,” Hillsboro head coach Miles Burton said. “At times this is a very simple game; you have to make more baskets than they do and we weren’t able to do that tonight. It was not for a lack of effort.
“We made mistakes at times, don’t get me wrong,” Burton said. “We’ll get back and clean that up. They weren’t effort mistakes. We’ll be better from this.
“Give Court House credit,” Burton said. “Shannon does a great job and they were better than us tonight.”
Hillsboro hit the first bucket of the game, but Washington held a 14-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Washington led by as many as eight points early in the second quarter, but Hillsboro went on an 8-0 run and went in front, 24-20. Colter and Isaiah Haithcock scored before the half to tie the game, 24-24.
The Blue Lions retook the lead with a free throw from Wall and a three-point basket by Colter and held the lead the remainder of the game.
Washington led by as many as seven points, which was the margin at the end of the third quarter, 38-31.
The Blue Lions led by as many as 12 points in the early going of the fourth quarter.
Hillsboro pulled to within six points late, but time was not on their side as the Blue Lions emerged with a hard-fought 58-51 victory.
The Blue Lions (3-1 overall, 1-1 in the FAC) will play at Chillicothe Tuesday.
Hillsboro (2-2 overall, 2-1 in the FAC) hosts Goshen Saturday.
In other FAC games Friday, Chillicothe beat Miami Trace, 54-48 in overtime and Jackson defeated McClain, 31-28.
In the junior-varsity game Friday, Washington beat Hillsboro, 34-30.
Micah Brown led the Blue Lions with 11 points; Coleden May and Nydrell Wright each had nine.
For Hillsboro, Steven Kibler led with 10 points, Nic Burns scored nine and Deegan Bloomfield scored eight.
In Friday’s freshman game, the Blue Lions rolled to a 47-21 victory.
Nydrell Wright led Washington with 13 points, Jacob Lindsey scored 10 and Gage Merritt had nine.
Brayden Hunter led Hillsboro with 13 points.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
W 14 12 14 20 — 58
H 8 16 7 20 — 51
WASHINGTON — Reico Colter 6 (2)-11-29; John Wall 4 (2)-2-16; Brayden May 1-2-4; Raleigh Haithcock 0-1-1; Troy Thompson 0-0-0; Isaiah Haithcock 2-0-4; Rishaun Burns 2-0-4. TOTALS — 15 (4)-16-58. Free throw shooting: 16 of 26 for 62 percent. Three-point field goals: Colter, 2; Wall, 2. Field goal shooting: 19 of 48 for 40 percent. Turnovers: 7.
HILLSBORO — Ethan Parry 1 (3)-3-14; Tate Davis 0-0-0; Quintin Captain 3-0-6; Steven Kibler 0-0-0; Canaan Griffith 1 (2)-0-8; Jayse Middleton 0-2-2; Bryce Parson 2-2-6; Bentley Watson 0-0-0; Hunter Price 6 (1)-2-17; Nic Burns 0-0-0. TOTALS — 13 (6)-7-51. Free throw shooting: 7 of 7 for 100 percent. Three-point field goals: Parry, 3; Griffith, 2; Price. Field goal shooting: 19 of 52 for 37 percent. Turnovers: 15.
