Tah-jae Hill scored 26 points and added 11 rebounds as the freshman led Hilton to a 77-60 win over host Churchville-Chili in boys’ basketball. It was his first double-double as a varsity player coming in his ninth game.
The first quarter featured six lead changes as Saints junior Eric Lewis was scoring from both inside, outside and the free throw line. Hill hit a three-pointer for the Cadets as the buzzer sounded to knot the game 21-21.
Hilton’s defense then took over limiting the Saints to 16 total points over the next two quarters while the offense racked up 39 points.
“It was tough to stay in front of him and he shot better than we thought he would from the outside,” Hilton head coach Troy Prince said about Lewis. “And he was unselfish and found the open man. Then we decided not to let him get the ball.”
Joe Lipani hit a trey early in the second quarter to give the Cadets the lead for good and he added seven more points in the stanza.
The third was Hill’s as he scored half of Hilton’s 22 points as they built a 23 point advantage.
The Saints came alive in the fourth with Lewis scoring 11 points including two field goals off of steals, but it was too late.
In addition to Hill, Lipani finished with 13 points and four assists, Johnathan Letta had nine points with four assists, Morgan Kunigan also scored nine and Ian Schwartzmeier added eight to the Cadets attack.
Lewis continued his early season success for the Saints averaging a double-double. He had a game-high 29 points with 13 rebounds while JV call-up Garland Akins had ten points with seven rebounds and Dillon Strine added five points.
