Mapleton girls basketball plays strong defense in win over Hillsdale
NANKIN — The Mapleton girls basketball team did what it always does in a 42-24 nonconference win over Hillsdale Tuesday night at Mapleton High School.
Play strong defense.
And three of the players most responsible for the victory were seniors Bailey Davis and Sara Hickey and sophomore Heidi Earl.
Davis played strong interior defense and led both teams with a double-double of 13 points and 13 rebounds as Mapleton (10-3) held a 53-30 board edge. Hickey scored seven points and pocketed three steals, and Earl added nine points, five rebounds and four steals.
“Bailey puts her whole heart and soul into it when she plays, and it shows on those rebounds to get a double-double,” said first-year Mapleton coach Daryl Young. “We expect some points from her, and she comes through on that end for us, but the defensive things she’ll do really the rebounding. She tracks the ball well. She is a great senior captain for this team.”
Young also had praise for Earl and Hickey.
“Heidi will handle the ball for us at times, get us into our offense,” he said. “She’s got some maturity, even as a sophomore, and she goes hard. She is a hard worker, and that’s where her steals come from, and the determination that comes from her is fun to watch.
“The team has taken the family to heart, and that’s attributing to Sara and Bailey as our captains for sure but to all of them. They found out they enjoy playing basketball together, and they enjoy competing, and they’re all willing to do it for one another.”
Hillsdale continues to improve but hurt itself against Mounties
Mapleton jumped out to an 18-9 lead at the end of the first quarter, and Hillsdale (5-9) was never able to recover. Mapleton’s defense had something to do with it, keeping Hillsdale’s offense under wraps. The Falcons also committed 16 turnovers to 16 for the Mounties, which came into play.
“When you’re 8 for 43 for the game (from the floor), that doesn't help either, so we’ve had a couple of bad games shooting. We were 10 for 61 Saturday, so you can’t win a game shooting less than 20%,” said Hillsdale coach Tadd Elliott. “But we always play hard. That’s one thing we do. We play hard. We’ve just got to match intensity.
"And that’s two games in a row we let the refs dictate how we play, and they just get frustrated because they fouled. But they just have to forget about that and play the game like we can, but we haven’t figured out how to do that yet.”
Hillsdale didn’t have a player reach double-digit scoring, but several Falcons shined.
Senior Lacey Fickes led the way with eight points, adding four rebounds and two steals. Senior Sydney Elliott scored six points, nabbed eight rebounds and had a steal. Senior Lauren Bishop pulled down eight rebounds, and junior Marissa Heldenbrand came up with seven rebounds.
“We haven’t had a game yet where everybody played good at one time,” coach Elliott said. “But it’s bound to come, so hopefully, soon.”
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Mapleton uses strong defensive effort to defeat Hillsdale
