Senior guard Megan Letta helped sixth-seeded Hilton rebound from an early 7-0 deficit by scoring seven of her team-best 11 points in the second quarter in their 57-39 victory in their first round Section V Class AA girls basketball playoff game against 11th seed Gates Chili.
The Cadets couldn’t get their offense untracked in the first quarter and didn’t manage their first field goal until almost four minutes into the contest.
“Nerves mostly, but I was a little worried,” Hilton head coach Kurt Graupman said about his team’s start. “But we really didn’t turn the ball or get any offensive rebounds, so the strength of our group settled things down.”
In a big way as they outscored the Spartans 16-6 in the second quarter to open up a seven-point halftime lead.
Gates Chili came out of the halftime locker room with a short run to cut the Cadets lead to six, but senior Meghan Schiano hit a lay-up and three-pointer over the next minute while senior Katie Annable added a trey, Linzee Reyes a pair of free throws and junior Olivia Strauss executed a perfect pump-fake with an open lay-up at the third quarter buzzer to extend the Cadets lead to 14.
Reyes scored half of her eight points in the fourth quarter with junior Laura Favor adding a late put-back to secure the victory and a quarterfinal date with third-seed Edison Tech.
“(Senior) Meghan McGwin and Schiano took the pressure off of Letta and Reyes in the second half as we got back to making that extra pass to the open shooter,” Graupman said.
Letta finished with 11 points with three assists and tied with Schiano for the team lead with seven rebounds each. Schiano had nine points as did Annable to go with four rebounds. McGwin added seven points while Reyes added five rebounds and three steals.
