EC girls pull off big rally to beat Hillsboro 53-44

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HILLSBORO — Winless in the South Central Ohio League and down by 10 in the second quarter to Hillsboro Saturday night, East Clinton’s girls basketball team rallied for a 53-44 win over the Lady Indians.

Adding to the precarious situation for East Clinton was an 18-point loss to Hillsbor in the first meeting of the year between the two league rivals. The deck was clearly stacked against the Lady Astros.

“I was very impressed with how the girls stayed the course,” EC coach Steven Gerber said. “Our kids really stepped up.”

East Clinton is 3-11 overall and 1-8 in the league. Hillsboro is now 1-14, 1-9.

Lacey Peterman led EC with 13 points and nine rebounds. Paige Lilly had a season-high 12 points and four rebounds. Kaitlin Durbin scored 10 points while Bre Davis had nine points and 13 rebounds.

Ciarra Cooper had seven points and three steals and Sam Gaddis had two points and two rebounds. Marissa Williams had two rebounds and played well defensively off the bench for the Lady Astros, Gerber said. Kayla Hall, who went down with an injury during the game, contributed three assists in the first half, Gerber added.

“This was one of our more complete games,” said Gerber. “We did a good job of taking care of the ball and executing on offense. Defensively we did a great job of executing the game plan and forcing them into a lot of contested shots.”

After a back and forth first quarter ended in a 15-15 tie, Hillsboro raced out to a 26-16 lead in the second quarter to put East Clinton behind the proverbial 8-ball.

Gerber said a 5-0 run to end the half by East Clinton “was huge for our confidence.”

“We didn’t play bad in the second quarter, we just couldn’t buy a bucket,” he said.

The Lady Astros carried that momentum into the third period, outscoring Hillsboro 21-9 to take a 42-35 lead going to the final quarter.

“Our defense really stepped up in the second half,” said Gerber. “We were able to hold them to 18 points in the second half.”

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By Mark Huber

[email protected]

Reach Mark Huber at 937-556-5765, or on Twitter @wnjsports.

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