On paper, the Perryville girls basketball game with Hillsboro looked like an even match. Despite the Hawks’ gaudy 22-2 record, Perryville was one of the two squads to hand Hillsboro a defeat during the West County Christmas Tournament on Dec. 29.
However, this game was for the JCAA Conference title, if Perryville defeated Hillsboro Thursday night, and beat Windsor in the last week of the season, the two teams would have identical 7-1 conference records.
The Hawks would have none of that.
Perryville hung around in the first half, but Hillsboro pulled away for a 51-29 win at Perryville High School. With the victory, Hillsboro clinched the JCAA Conference with a perfect 8-0 record.
“It was a rough night for us,” Perryville coach Jason Dreyer said. “They were really good defensively and they have stuck a girl on Brooklyn (Moll) and they did a good job defending her.”
Perryville got off to a rough start as Hillsboro jumped out to a 6-0 start in the first two minutes of the game after deploying a full court press from the opening tip. Perryville battled back, despite being without point guard Janie Porter who is out for the remainder of the year with a knee injury, and tied the game with a putback by Elizabeth Rhoden to tie the game at 8-8 early in the second quarter.
From there it was all Hawks.
Hillsboro went on a 9-0 run led by Ashley and Kaylee Hilton. The sisterly-duo led Hillsboro to a 16-4 second quarter advantage and a 24-10 halftime lead. The Hilton’s combined for 19 points in the first half, and more than 32 of the team’s 51 points. Moll led the way for Perryville with 9 points, while Lucy Wibbenmeyer had 8.
“They have done that all year,” Dreyer said. “They are a handful and their teammates do a good job of getting them the ball in the post. One of our goals was to keep the ball from getting in the lane. We didn’t do a good job early of protecting the ball, but I felt like we settled down.”
Despite settling down with the turnovers, Perryville could not put the ball in the basket, shooting 20 percent for the game.
“It’s hard to beat anybody shooting like that, but especially a team like Hillsboro,” Dreyer said. “There’s a reason they have only lost two games all year.”
