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Balanced effort helps Hillman win opener

HILLMAN-Two things were abundantly clear about the Hillman boys basketball team on Tuesday.

The Tigers still play tenacious defense and the Tigers still have plenty of scoring ability.

Combining a relentless defensive effort with a balanced scoring attack, Hillman controlled the tempo on both ends of the floor and rolled past Cedarville 60-43 in its season opener at Hillman High School.

Gunnar Libby scored 26 points, including five three-pointers and Dylan Steinke added 12 points for the Tigers (1-0) who took a 17-5 lead after one quarter and kept rolling from there.

“I’ll tell you what, I did not anticipate the first quarter the way it went. I knew were strong defensively, but what I was most impressed with and one of things I (worried about) was, who’s going to step up on offense,” Hillman coach Eric Muszynski said. “I thought tonight we had some guys do some wonderful things offensively.”

Hillman’s defensive tenacity was evident from the get-go as the Tigers used their speed to disrupt Cedarville’s passing lanes and come away with numerous steals. Hillman also won the majority of battles for rebounds and loose balls and came away with many points off of turnovers, frustrating a Cedarville team that’s matched up with Hillman in the playoffs each of the last two seasons.

Whatever questions Muszynski had about his team’s offense went away early. Kolcan led off the game with a three-pointer and before the end of the first quarter Hillman went on a 12-0 run. The rest of the game was more of the same whether it was Libby draining shots from outside, Kolcan driving in for layups, Kyle McLaren banging inside or Steinke attacking from inside and outside.

Hillman led 32-12 at halftime and had eight different players score in Tuesday’s win. It was a welcome sight for Muszynski after the Tigers graduated four starters from last year.

“That was my big question mark coming into the season. We graduated 85 percent of our scoring,” Eric Muszynski said. “Gunnar and Dylan Steinke played extensively last year and we’ve got some other kids who returned, but didn’t play a lot.”

McLaren added eight points for Hillman and Kolcan had seven, providing a spark whenever Hillman needed one.

“Billy’s really explosive. He’s going to be key anywhere we put him. He’s got a high motor and that showed early on,” Muszynski said. “He set the tone for us early and it led to some easy buckets for guys and he got some nice layups as well.”

Cedarville trailed 47-24 after three quarters, but finally found some offensive footing in the fourth quarter, starting on an 11-0 run to cut the score to 47-35 with 5:16 left. Any potential for a rally was quickly squashed though as the Tigers stepped up again defensively and limited the Trojans to three field goals the rest of the way.

Hunter Perkins and Dakota Fairchild paced Cedarville with 11 points each and Jared Salvador added eight.

Cedarville’s JV team defeated Hillman 55-32. Tristan Masuga led Cedarville with 23 points. Kyler Moir led Hillman with 11 points, Bobby Hunt added eight and Jared Juergens had six.

HILLMAN (60): B. Kolcan 2 2-2 7; K. McLaren 4 0-0 8; D. Steinke 6 0-0 12; G. Libby 7 7-10 26; A. Funk 1 0-0 2; B. Banks 1 0-0 3; K. Henigan 1 0-0 2.

CEDARVILLE (43): H. Perkins 4 3-6 11; J. Salvador 3 1-1 8; M. Haske 0 1-2 1; C. Massey 4 0-0 8; E. Rye 0 0-1 0; P. McMaken 1 0-1 2; Z. Claxton 1 0-0 2; D. Fairchild 4 0-0 11.

James Andersen can be reached via email at sports@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5694. Follow James on Twitter @ja_alpenanews.

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