BOYS BASKETBALL | Hiland has the right answers against West Holmes

MILLERSBURG — Hiland's ability to answer every blow delivered by West Holmes with one if its own helped the Hawks pull out a 57-52 triumph over the Knights in the battle for bragging rights in Holmes County Tuesday night in the Dungeon.

A driving layup by West Holmes senior Blake Morrison that knotted the score 34-34 early in the fourth quarter was answered by a 3-pointer by Tony Yoder to give the Hawks the lead.

Channer Wells scored to trim the lead back to one, but Caden Miller drilled a 3-pointer to give the visitors a 40-36 advantage.

Morrison, who led all scorers with 21 points, swished a 3 for the Knights, but the Hawks bounced right back with a three-point play by Miller three minutes into the final quarter.

Grant Miller scored to give Hiland its biggest lead at 45-39 midway through the quarter, but Wells and Morrison delivered 3-pointers for the hosts to knot the score at 45 with 3:30 to play.

After the teams traded scores by Shetler and Wells, an offensive foul on Hiland and a bomb by Zander Shultz gave the Knights a 50-47 edge with 2:20 remaining.

Yoder swished a 3 from the corner a minute later to tie things back up at 50-50.

After a West Holmes miss, Hiland's Grant Miller delivered the dagger with another 3-pointer with 33 seconds to play.

Wells scored inside, but four free throws in the final 15 seconds by Grant Miller secured win No. 13 against two losses for the Hawks.

"Chris throughout the game made a lot of big plays for us," said Hiland coach Mark Schlabach of Shetler, a senior who paced the Hawks with 17 points and seven rebounds. "But then we had Grant, Tony and Caden all hit huge shots down the stretch, right after they had a kid hit a huge shot.

"That was a tournament atmosphere, and that was what I was really hoping for, win or lose. A game like this will really help both teams out a lot come tournament time."

West Holmes coach Donnie Hall agreed.

"I wish we could play Hiland 22 times a year," Hall said. "That's how you get better. We're not going to see any style of play in the tournament that we haven't seen during our regular-season schedule. There's some reasoning behind the madness of our schedule. We'll get better every game."

From the opening tip it was a defensive battle, the type of game the Hiland coach expected.

"This was the game I expected. I knew it was going to be tough to score," Schlabach said. "I told Donnie that they pressure better than anyone we've seen all year. It was hard to make a pass, let alone do anything else."

A Morrison 3-pointer to beat the buzzer gave the Knights an 8-7 lead at the end of the opening eight minutes.

The senior point guard was disappointed with the outcome.

"We were all playing as hard as we could," Morrison said. "Sometimes you just don't come out with a win. We played a decent game. We kind of slacked on defensive rebounds, but it does suck playing Hiland in a big rivalry game, having a lead and then letting it slip away in the fourth quarter. That's happened to us a couple times this year, but we'll fix that up come tournament time."

The teams traded buckets back and forth until Grant Miller split two free throws to tie it 12-12.

Wells, who finished with 14 points for the Knights, scored a three-point play, but Dylan Weaver drilled a 3-pointer to make it 15-all.

Miller made two free throws, but Brock Zimmerly swished 3s on back-to-back trips down the floor, sandwiching a Shetler bomb.

Buckets by Morrison and Wells gave West Holmes its largest lead at 25-20 with 1:11 to play in the first half, but Shelter and Weaver scored for Hiland to trim the lead to 25-24 at halftime.

A 3-pointer by Sammy Detweiler 3-pointer made it 27-27 early in the third quarter, and the game went back and forth until a free throw by Weaver gave the Hawks a 33-32 edge heading into the final quarter.

Morrison and Wells provided the one-two punch for the Knights (6-7). Zimmerly had three 3-pointers for nine points and Shultz added six points to go with a team-high five rebounds.

Yoder finished with nine points, Detweiler seven, and Weaver and Caden Miller added six apiece for the winners, who connected on 7 of 15 from beyond the arc, while West Holmes went 8 of 25 from deep.

The Hawks won the battle of the boards 30-19, including nine offensive rebounds.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Chris Shetler scores 17 points in Hiland win over West Holmes