BERLIN — In the 27-plus years Dave Schlabach’s been coaching, the venerable Hiland coach is rarely happy after a loss. Yet after the Hawks went toe-to-toe with the No. 1 ranked team in Division I and had Newark on the ropes into the fourth quarter before falling 37-33, the coach was far from disappointed.
His young troops had given the Wildcats all they could handle and then some.
"We out-rebounded that team by nine (37-28). The effort was great," Schlabach said. "End of game execution, we made too many mistakes. We’ve got to clean some of that up."
"It’s good, knowing we can play with the best, but we hate the sting of losing," the coach continued. "I thought our kids played hard enough to win. It would be nice if we could walk out of here feeling good, but in the long run, what we experienced this weekend was exactly why we schedule these games. We just appreciate playing good people. I thought we got great performances from a number of kids."
One player especially earning the praise of the coach was freshman Morgan Yoder.
"Morgan has shut down two of the best players in the country the past two nights," Schlabch said. "She held (Morgan) Sharps to four and (Regis Jesuit’s Jada) Moore gets three.
The Hawks got four points early inside from Tiffany Weaver, and a pair of Zoe Miller free throws knotted the game at 8-8 after the opening eight minutes.
Brynn Mullet stroked a triple to give the Hawks an 11-10 lead early in the second quarter, and Morgan Yoder gave the Hawks a 17-16 lead late in the frame, until Newark senior guard, Kent State-bound Katie Shumate scored to give the Wildcats a 19-17 lead at the half.
The score changed hands 10 times overall and was tied six times. The score was 25-all after three periods of play.
Shumate scored 25 points to lead all scorers, including the final seven points of the game. She stroked a 3-pointer that gave Newark a 33-32 lead it would not relinquish.
"Watching my kids play basketball from the perspective I can gives me all the joy in the world," said Newark coach J.R. Shumate. "I love the way they do it. I love how they do it. She plays really hard. I say that about our whole team."
The Newark coach says he is used to winning games big, scoring 60, 70 points a game, so coming in here this weekend and winning two games scoring in the 30s was promising.
"I liked how we won this weekend," he added. "I’m very proud of them. They won with their hard hats on. Hiland is extremely well-coached, and it was intimidating coming into this atmosphere, seeing more students over there than you ever see at a high school game. We love coming here and we’re humbled we get to play in part of this tradition that Hiland has."
The Hawks did not have any players score in double figures. Kennedy Schlabach paced the team with seven points and Sara Keim swished a pair of 3-pointers to finish with six. Five different players added four points apiece. Hiland dropped to 9-4 with the loss.
Coach Schlabach said hopefully there won’t be many more times we see him smile after a loss.