01-11-14
BY JACK BULLOCK
HILLSBORO – Surviving an onslaught of long-range artillery in a basketball sense, the Hillsboro Hiltoppers used its size advantage and inside the arc proficiency to pick up an important conference game victory at home on Saturday night.

Head coach Joe Vanzo saw his club rally after coughing up a fourth quarter lead and endured Pana’s Kyle Gibson’s 44-point barrage in squeaking out a 73-67 shootout on Saturday night at home.

In a stark contrast of styles, the inside conventional game of Hillsboro won out over the 3-point attack by Pana.

Taking advantage of the pressing style of Pana, the Hiltoppers converted several in close shots beating the over-playing defense in the win.

“We tell the kids when teams press us we have to be able to score. They are giving us opportunities to score so we have to make them pay,” said Coach Vanzo. “Our kids converted a lot tonight. Our goal was that if we didn’t score off of their press that we would pull the ball out for a 25 second possession. I thought the kids did that in the fourth quarter. We got the ball into the post and good things happened when we got it down there.”

The Panthers, whose Will Rogers type moniker is “we never met a 3-pointer we didn’t like,” launched 33 3-point bombs and made 11 of those.

However it was Hillsboro who got the job done on inside of the arc by hitting 27-of-46 2-point attempts, which turned out to be the difference.

After a 10-2 run by the Panthers to open the fourth quarter to give the visitors their first lead of the game, Hillsboro answered.

Following a Gibson basket on a baseline jumper, Pana was in command at 58-53.

But the Hiltoppers put together a 14-2 march to get back the lead and converted 6-of-8 free throws in the final 1:01 to seal the win.

Six-foot-eight junior Dylan Miller led Hillsboro with 21-points on the night and he scored four points in the run.

“He is strong and you can’t push him off the blocks,” said Coach Vanzo about Dylan Miller. “He makes good decisions and he can knock down free throws late in the game.”

Senior teammate Noah Calvert, who finished with 18-points, converted a trio of fast break lay ups that triggered the game changing run.

Grabbing a long rebound off of yet another Pana 3-point attempt, Calvert went the length of the floor for a score that stopped the run at 67-60 Hiltoppers with 1:22 remaining.

Coach Gary Bowker’s Panthers had ample opportunity to pick up the victory but couldn’t make the plays in the last four minutes of the contest.

“When we were up five (in the fourth quarter) we made about five poor decisions in a row and that got them on their run,” said Coach Bowker. “I thought ‘okay we have seniors out there so we should be able to stop this and get a good possession’ and we didn’t. And I told the players when we have bad possession we can’t give up easy baskets on the defensive end.”

Cody Caulk, a 6-foot junior, added 16-points for Hillsboro that included 10-of-12 made free throws while Jonah Walsh tossed in 14.

That balanced scoring over shadowed the night that Gibson had.

The senior guard for Pana nailed eight 3-pointers and converted six shots on drives to the basket. He was also 8-of-9 from the foul line.

After a conventional three-point play by Gibson to even the score at 8-8 in the first quarter, Hillsboro took the lead back with an 11-0 run.

Miller scored six of those points; one of the baskets was a two-handed dunk off a pass from Walsh.

When he grabbed one of his nine rebounds on the night for a put back with 2:25 left, Hillsboro had a 19-8 advantage.

Not to be outdone, Pana responded with a 9-2 crusade to finish the frame.

Gibson scored four points on a steal and fast break conversion and two free throws while Evan Gaston hit a 3-pointer from the right wing to close the quarter at 21-17 Hiltoppers.

Hillsboro kept the lead throughout a lack-luster second quarter that saw more mistakes than connections.

Pana had chances to make a run in the stanza but didn’t make the move.

The two clubs were a combined 9-of-27 in the quarter to go with seven turnovers together, which ended at 35-28 Hillsboro.

The game of scoring runs had two more in the third quarter, one by each club.

The hosts scored seven consecutive points to give themselves their first double-digit advantage.

Miller and Walsh added points to the totals with Miller scoring on a short hook shot in the lane for a 44-33 spread at the 3:19 mark.

“We don’t have anyone we can match up with him (Miller) and I thought we did a decent job on him. He does a great job of passing the ball,” said Coach Bowker. “We were late a few times rotating our defense and he found the open man.”

But as it turned out, Gibson wasn’t done firing away.

The 6-foot-2 senior connected from deep three times in the quarter, with two coming late.

After his third bomb found the mark and a score by Gastons late in the quarter, Pana trailed just 44-41 heading to the fourth.

Gibson kept launching, sparking a fourth quarter beginning that made the Panthers look like winners.

Two more 3-pointers by Gibson and a banked-bomb from the top of the circle by sophomore Rhett Zahradka put Pana in position to escape with a triumph.

But the afore mentioned 14-2 sprint switched the momentum and doomed the visitors.

Pana finished 23-of-63 (36.5 percent) overall and committed 11-turnovers in their fast-paced style.

“Our goal playing a team like them (Hillsboro) who doesn’t have a lot of depth is that we want them to have 25-turnovers,” Coach Bowker explained. “We felt like if we put the pressure on them that we should turn them over. But we just kind of went through the motions tonight.”

Hillsboro committed 14-turnovers but held a 32-26 advantage on the glass.

“This was a fast-paced game with a lot of possessions so I will take 14-turnovers,” added Coach Vanzo. “We played defense differently than at anytime since I have been here. We switched on every screen on the perimeter and didn’t help out inside. We wanted them (Pana) if they got to the basket that they would have to finish on Miller and if they kick it out to a shooter we would have somebody there.”

While Coach Vanzo’s team wasn’t strong from the foul line (19-of-29) they hit just enough at the end to pick up the win.

Hillsboro is now 7-7 overall and 2-1 in the South Central while Pana slipped to 7-6 and 1-2.

The Toppers will host Gillespie on Tuesday night while the Panthers will take a week to prepare for the Litchfield Invitational Tournament.

“This was the same situation we were in last night against Litchfield (54-50 loss). We had a lead, a pretty decent lead in the fourth quarter and our kids didn’t respond,” said Coach Vanzo. “But tonight we responded well.”