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A physical victory

Hillman tops Alcona 56-41 for eighth win in a row

News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Hillman’s Lyndsey Ryba (14) takes a running jump shot over Alcona’s Brittany Decker (50) during the third quarter of a North Star League girls basketball game at Alcona High School on Monday night.

LINCOLN — There is no hotter team in the North Star League right now than the Hillman girls basketball team who came away victorious for the eighth game in a row after a hard-fought, physical battle against Alcona on Monday, winning by a score of 56-41 on the road at Alcona High School.

“It was a good team win. Alcona always plays us tough and that’s what we were expecting tonight. I thought for the most part our defense was good and we were forced to play a lot of man-to-man which we are getting better at,” Hillman coach John Kuzewski said.

The game was physical right from the opening tip and the officials let the girls play as there were many hard knocks and rough fouls throughout the course of the game.

“It was a pretty physical game and we were able to execute in the post which we can usually do, but Hillman’s defensive pressure is a little more than we can handle at times and turnovers were a big part of our problem tonight. That pressure they were able to put on the ball was the difference in the game tonight,” Alcona coach Mark Feldhiser said.

Both teams got off to a sluggish start offensively, but Hillman turned up the defensive pressure late and it resulted in five unanswered points, three of which came from Morgan Armon who stepped in front of a pass and took it coast-to-cost, was fouled but made the layup and converted the free throw to give Hillman a 13-6 lead after one quarter.

The lead was quickly erased as Alcona scored the first seven points of the second quarter to tie the game back up. After leading by two midway through the quarter, Hillman once again turned up its defensive pressure which eventually led to opportunities on the offensive end as Hillman went on an 11-5 run to close out the half.

Three of Hillman’s 15 second quarter points came with two seconds left in the half as Vanessa Schook was fouled on a three point attempt. Schook capitalized on all three attempts to put Hillman ahead 28-20 at the break.

“I always preach make the extra pass and not to settle for a mediocre shot, but look for a good shot and as the game went on we started making the open shots that weren’t falling early,” Kuzewski said “A big part of it was being more patient in the second half and running our offense better. I thought that was the difference in the game.”

The shots were falling and the offense looked much better in the second half and the solid defense continued as Hillman had an answer each time Alcona made a basket as they continued to build a lead and went into the fourth quarter ahead by 14.

Alcona did everything it could early in the fourth to make a comeback, scoring the first six points to cut the lead back to single digits, but Hillman proved to be too much down the stretch and again found a way to get it done late.

“It was a tale of two different teams. We dominated in the post and Hillman dominated on the perimeter and they just got the best of us. It was a very tough, aggressive and good basketball game,” Feldhiser said.

Brittany Decker led all scorers with 16 points on the night for Alcona and Taylor Livingston added 15 points in the loss.

Alcona falls to 5-5 overall on the year and 3-3 in NSL play. Alcona will be back in action on Friday when it travels to Oscoda.

Hillman got double digit scoring from four of its five starters led by Schook who poured in a team high 14 points. Armon and Lyndsey Ryba added 12 points and Kristen Kenyon collected 10 points to help Hillman win its eighth game in a row.

Hillman improves to 8-1 overall and 6-0 in NSL play. Hillman will have a tough test on Friday when it hosts an 8-1 Rogers City team.

“We need to play our game. We need to focus on a few things, but most importantly we just need to play our game on Friday night,” Kuzewski said.

The Hillman JV team also won a physical game by defeating Alcona 20-16.

Ricki Steinke led Hillman scoring seven points.

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HILLMAN (56) — L. Ryba, 3 5-6 12; K. Kenyon, 5 0-0 10; V. Schook, 4 6-7 14; M. Armon, 5 1-1 12; A. Taratuta, 0 1-2 1; O. Smith, 0 1-2 1; E. LaFleche, 1 1-3 3; J. Appelgren, 1 0-0 3.

ALCONA (41) — T. Livingston, 6 3-4 15; K. LaFave, 2 0-0 5; M. Lane, 0 0-2 0; R. Warner, 1 0-0 2; B. Schultz, 1 1-2 3; B. Decker, 6 4-5 16.

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