By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Looking to put together a little momentum before the postseason, the Peebles Indians hosted a non-conference game on Valentines Night, welcoming another band of Indians and more red and white to town, the Hillsboro Indian. The battle of the tribes wasn’t over western territory but instead fora final regular season contest before both teams moved on into tournament play.
On this Tuesday night, it has was the host Tribe that circled the wagons early and kept the arrows flying until the end as Coach Josh Arey’s Peebles squad took the lead midway through the first period and never gave it up, finishing their regular season on a high note with a 64-52 victory.
“ We’ve had game where we played pretty well and I think we played well defensively the second half and offensively the kids were good and understanding some things,” said Coach Arey after the win. “We always want to push the basketball and force the other team back on defense and we talked about it in scouting what we could do and for the most part I think we executed well throughout the game.”
The first basket of Tuesday night’s battle was special for one of the Peebles Indians. Senior Zane Porter, who was forced to miss the entire season because of an injury, took the floor in the starting lineup and off the opening tip off, received a pass and laid it off the glass for what were the only points of his senior season, coming on Senior Night at PHS. Hillsboro was then given a corresponding layup on the other end and the game literally began at 2-2.
The Indians grabbed the lead on a put back by senior Dallas Wilkinson and a later three-pointer by senior Cory Reed put the home team up 7-5.. After a bucket by Hillsboro’s Bryce Parsons tied the score, the Peebles side dialed long distance again, a three-ball again by Reed giving his team the lead, one they never gave up from that point forward. Senior Mason Sims added a pair of scores and the Peebles lead bulged to 16-7 . Hillsboro crept closer on a three-point goal from Brayden Hunter, but Peebles answered with a stick back from Hayden Browning and an old-fashioned three-point play from senior Zane Knechtly, and a high-scoring first quarter ended with the home team on top 23-16.
Two Knechtly free tosses opened the scoring in the second quarter as the home team maintained a lead of anywhere from six to nine points until a three-ball from Hunter pulled the visitors within 31-26. Later in the stanza, the Peebles offense pushed the lead back to eight with back to back successful jumpers from Grooms and Christopher Oldfield, but Hillsboro’s Hunter ended a big quarter for him with two baskets, including a buzzer beater, that cut the Peebles lead to 36-32 at the half.
The home team came out of the break with a renewed energy, continuing to push the tempo and opening the second half with a big 9-0 run, a run that began with another Reed three-pointer on the team’s first possession and ended with a Mason Sims steal and score that made it 45-32. A bucket by Hunter broke up the Peebles run but Sims answered with an “and one” to extend he advantage to 48-34.In the final 2:50 of the third period, Hillsboro got a pair of three-pointers from Tate Davis sandwiched around a pair of Reed baskets and the third ended with the home side still leading by double digits, 52-40..
Just as they had done in the previous period, the Indians opened the fourth quarter on fire, scoring the first eight points while there defense continued to make their stand . Peebles held their biggest lead of the game at 60-40 with 4:12 to play and Coach Arey began to substitute to ensure that some of his seven seniors got their deserved recognition from the home faithful.
Over that final four-minute span, the home team got baskets from Browning and Wilkinson, which was plenty to hold of f the other tribe of Indians and Coach Arey and his quad had their 10th win of the season, downing Hillsboro by the final 12-point margin.
The Peebles offense in the win was led by their dynamic senior guard duo of Cory Reed and Mason Sims, who scored 19 and 14 points respectively. Zane Knechtly added 9 and Gage Grooms 8 as the Indians ended their regular season with a record of 10-12.
Hillsboro, out of the Frontier Athletic Conference, was paced by 16 points from Tate Davis, joined in double figures by teammates Brayden Hunter with 14 and Bryce Parsons with 12.
Tuesday night may have been the last regular season hone game for Peebles, but it won’t be their final home game. The Tribe will be hosting a first-round Division III sectional tournament game on Tuesday, February 21 where they will match up with the Portsmouth Trojans in a 7 p.m. tip off, with a trip to the sectional championship game at stake.
“We have a huge challenge,” says Coach Arey. “Portsmouth is an 18 seed but they’re much better than that, a very good basketball team. It’s going to take a big effort from our kids but I’m confident that they’ll come out ready to play next Tuesday.
Hillsboro
16 16 8 12 —52
Peebles
23 13 16 12 —64
Hillsboro (52): Burns 1 0-2 3, Priest 1 0-0 2, Davis 6 0-0 16, Hunter 5 2-2 14, Thompson 1 0-0 2, Parsons 4 4-6 12, Bloomfield 1 0-0 3, Team 19 6-10 52.
Peebles (64): Sims 5 4-5 14, Wilkinson 2 0-0 4, Oldfield 1 0-0 2, Grooms 4 0-0 8, Porter 1 0-0 2, Reed 8 0-0 19, Browning 3 0-1 6, Knechtly 3 3-3 9, Team 27 7-9 64.
Three-Point Goals:
Hillsboro (8)- Burns 1, Davis 4, Hunter 2, Bloomfield 1
Peebles (3)- Reed 3