Stingy Hawks prove the best offense is a good defense
The Hawks jumped all over the Tigers early, forging a 16-0 lead six minutes into the game, and eventually ran away and hid from the Tigers, earning a 65-17 win.
Hiland proved with its hustling, stifling defense that the old adage that the best offense is a great defense rings true.
It wasn't until Strasburg's Alex Smith made one of two free throws with just 22 seconds left in the first quarter that the Tigers were able to break into the scoring column, and four minutes into the second quarter, Hiland held a 30-1 lead, consistently pounding the ball down on the low blocks to Neil Gingerich and Seger Bonifant.
Hiland would take a 35-9 advantage into the locker room, stretch the lead out to 55-13 after three and sail to an easy win to move to 2-0 on the year.
While people normally think about how tough it is for the losing team in a game like this, it is never much fun for the winning team either, although it did allow Hiland coach Mark Schlabach to get all of his squad plenty of action on the floor.
Much of the action early on settled around Gingerich, who was saddled with foul trouble in the season opener against West Holmes and saw limited minutes. This time around, his teammates made a point of getting the big man involved in the offense, the young man nicknamed Big Bird scoring six of Hiland's first nine points, sandwiched around a Jason Miller three-pointer.
"We wanted to get Neil involved a lot early on because he saw so few touches in the first game because of foul trouble," said Schlabach. "I thought he did a nice job of posting up and playing big."
Gingerich found Dylan Kaufman for a lay-up to make it 11-0, then Bonifant connected from downtown to move the lead to 14-0. Kaufman hit a pair of free throws before Smith finally got the Tigers on the board, but then freshman Eric Miller hit a stick back jumper to round out an 18-1 first quarter start for the Hawks.
The Hawks then went to work inside, scoring their next 12 points in the paint. In that run over the first four minutes of the quarter, Gingerich scored five, Bonifant three and Cameron Miller and Chaise Gerber each added scores on lay-ups. It wasn't until the 3:50 mark of the second quarter that Strasburg's Mitch Wilkinson finally scored a bucket for the Tigers. Caden Bonar scored twice late in the second to get Strasburg to nine points, but it was going to be a long night for the Tigers.
"Hiland took us out of everything we wanted to do offensively," lamented Strasburg coach Shawn Miller. "Defensively they really got after it."
Despite the outcome of this game, Miller vowed that the Tigers (0-2) would continue to keep working at getting better.
"It's been a process of us trying to figure out who we are and who we want to be," said Miller. "These are great kids, and they are capable. We've just got to figure out what is the best way for us to get better."
Schlabach, too, said the Hawks are still working on doing that same thing, and said that he was pleased with some of what he saw in the contest.
"This kind of a game isn't easy for anyone," said Schlabach. "But I was pleased, because I thought our kids played unselfish basketball. We really worked hard in our half court defense tonight.
"And we got to see a lot of kids, which is great, because we are going to have to have guys like Cody Gerber, Cameron Miller, Todd Ropp, Eric Miller and the rest of those bench guys down the road."
Gingerich led all scorers in the contest with 15 points, while Kaufman added 14, Bonifant pitched in with nine, Ropp scored six and Gerber and Jordan Yoder each added five. Bonar scored five to pace the Tigers, Wilkinson adding four. Hiland (1-1) had an easy time of it in the junior varsity game too, cruising to a 39-12 win.
Published: December 6, 2011
