The Washington Blue Lions had to fight from behind Tuesday night in their SCOL home game against the Hillsboro Indians.
In the end, Washington had enough to pull out a 60-55 victory.
The Blue Lions improve to 6-2 overall, 4-1 in the SCOL.
Hillsboro is now 1-4 overall, 1-3 in the SCOL.
Hillsboro senior Logan Kibler was the game’s leading scorer with 21 points.
Senior D.J. Brown and sophomore Phillip Mycroft both scored nine points for the Indians.
Senior Max Knisley and senior Cameron Eckles shared scoring honors for Washington, both with 17 points.
Junior Griffin Shaw scored 13 for the Blue Lions.
“They ran a little gimmick defense and it kept them in the game,” Washington head coach Shannon Bartruff said. “In the first half, I felt like we had a chance to really blow it open. We had a 13-point lead and then we started turning the ball over. We had seven turnovers in the second quarter.
“They got hot in the second quarter and made four threes,” Bartruff said. “It was real battle in the second half. We kind of gutted it out at the end.”
“Washington Court House is a really, really good basketball team,” Hillsboro head coach Bruce Miles said. “Shannon does a great job. I’ve known Shannon for a long time and I have a lot of respect for him.
“Our kids just kept coming all night,” Miles said. “I have to give hats off to Jacob Deatley, Matthew Ryan and Cameron Reed because they chased Max (Knisley) around the entire game. We tried to give them as many breaks as we could.
“We did a good job with our game plan, as far as what we were trying to do to try to slow them down,” Miles said. “The box-and-one (defense) is not something that we run a lot, but, with their personnel, we had to do something different.”
After trailing at the outset, 7-2, Washington turned things around and finished the first quarter with a 19-9 lead.
Hillsboro fought back smartly, to pull within two points at the half, 29-27.
The game got just a little bit tighter in the third quarter, as Washington held a 45-44 lead heading into the final quarter of action.
Kibler scored nine of Hillsboro’s 11 points in the final period.
The Blue Lions made 7 of 8 free throws in the fourth quarter, along with two buckets from Shaw and one basket each from Knisley and junior Jarett Patton to hold off the Indians for the win, 60-55.
Washington is back in action Friday at Clinton-Massie at 6 p.m.
Hillsboro will host league-leading Wilmington Friday with the freshman game starting at 4:45 p.m.
Wilmington crushed Clinton-Massie Tuesday, 101-27 and McClain edged East Clinton, 60-57.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
W 18 11 16 15 — 60
H 9 18 17 11 — 55
WASHINGTON — Max Knisley 4 (1)-6-17; Jarett Patton 2 (1)-0-7; Kory Proby 2-0-4; C.J. Taylor 0-0-0; Kenny Upthegrove 0-0-0; Griffin Shaw 4 (1)-2-13; Cameron Eckles 6-5-17; Brian Wilson 1-0-2. TOTALS — 19 (3)-13-60. Free throw shooting: 13 of 19 for 68 percent. Three-point field goals: Knisley, Patton, Shaw.
HILLSBORO — Jacob Deatley 1 (2)-0-8; Cameron Reed 0 (1)-0-3; Marshall Ward 0-2-2; Logan Kibler 7 (2)-1-21; D.J. Brown 3 (1)-0-9; Phillip Mycroft 2 (1)-2-9; Matthew Ryan 1-1-3. TOTALS — 14 (7)-6-55. Free throw shooting: 6 of 7 for 86 percent. Three-point field goals: Deatley, 2; Kibler, 2; Reed, Brown, Mycroft.
