The trip home for the Hiland Lady Hawks on Saturday, Jan. 28, was one of the more painful bus rides in recent memory. The silence on the bus was deafening, the mood a sour one. The trip home seemed to take an eternity.

The strange thing was, however, their bus ride was perhaps the shortest of the season in terms of miles, with the Lady Hawks returning from a 47-38 loss to rival Garaway.

For Hiland, it was as it has been in all six of their losses this year. The team had the lead in the fourth quarter but failed to hang on.

For Adam Hall’s young Lady Pirates, it marked another step in the maturation process, as they continue to play their best brand of ball as the regular season winds down.

“This is all just part of getting better,” said Hall, not wanting to make the game into an end-all-be-all for Garaway. “This is about us not wanting or hoping to win, but believing that each time out we are going to win, and that is the mind-set this team has right now.”

It certainly didn’t look good to begin the game for the Lady Pirates.

Hiland came out at a blistering clip, scoring the game’s first seven points.

That apparently angered Garaway senior center Anya Misko, who took it rather personally, enough so that she drug her team back into the game by scoring the next seven points of the contest to even things up.

“She stepped up all night, and we didn’t when we had to,” said Hiland coach Dave Schlabach of Misko. “She killed us.”

After those two runs, the teams settled into a defensive battle, neither team able to do much offensively the rest of the half, and Garaway held a 14-12 advantage heading into the locker room.

Hiland quickly found the range to begin the third, buckets by Meagan Hall and McKenzie Miller putting the Lady Hawks up 16-14. But Garaway guard Courtney Putt then stepped up, scoring a conventional three-point play and hitting on a three-pointer to tie the score at 22. With one minute to play in the third quarter, Regina Hochstetler drove inside for a score, then scored two free throws following a steal to spot Hiland to a 26-22 edge. Then Garaway had four shots from close-up to draw to within two as the quarter wound down, but misfired on all four, a series which both coaches thought could have been key.

“We were one bucket away from really putting them in a huge hole to start the fourth quarter,” said Schlabach.

“That was a huge possession,” agreed Hall. “We missed four easy opportunities there, and we could have gotten down.”

Instead the Lady Pirates got even... in a hurry.

While Hiland missed its first five field goal attempts of the fourth quarter, Garaway went to work. Misko scored inside, and following a Hiland turnover, Holly Young was fouled, and knocked down two free throws. Following a Hiland miss, Meagan Hall made a steal, but then lost the ball out of bounds. Karissa Swihart made Hiland pay, banking one home inside for a 28-26 lead. Moments later, she scored inside again.

Schlabach called time out, but Putt picked off the ensuing inbounds pass, got the ball to Misko and Garaway was up 32-26.

Another Hiland miss led to another opportunity for Garaway to pad their lead, and Putt did just that, dropping another trey to make it 35-26. Rachel Putt then split a pair of free throws following yet another Hiland miss, and Garaway had gone on a 14-0 run that essentially spelled defeat for Hiland, and victory for the home team.

McKenzie Miller hit a three-pointer to stem the tide and make it 37-29 with 2:40 to play, but Garaway’s players showed nerves of steel, parading to the free throw line down the stretch to make an amazing 11-of-12 of their final free throws, keeping the Lady Hawks at bay.

“I think once we calmed down a little after that start we played well,” said Hall. “That 14-0 run was pretty intense, but we really just approached it one possession at a time.”

For Schlabach, it was a vision he has seen a great deal of this year, one in which his team has a chance to put away a solid opponent, only to falter down the stretch.

“I think this is between our ears right now, and not between the lines,” said Schlabach. “We assume that we are going to find ways to lose. This was the same old story we’ve seen the last two years.

“We have a lead heading into the fourth, and a chance to put them away, and instead we turn the ball over our first two possessions and they go on a huge run.”

The run saw Garaway go five-of-five from the floor and 14-of-16 from the line in a nearly perfect final quarter that saw them score more points (25) than they had the first three quarters combined (22).

Meanwhile Hiland turned the ball over and was two-of-12 from the field when it counted.

“They were deserving to get that win,” said Schlabach. “Their kids stepped up. They gave the greater effort, played with more desire and with more confidence.”

“We expected to win this game,” said Hall. “We continue to learn how to play together. We’re finding ourselves, and although it has been a nice run, we hope that we are still a long way from a finished product. I am proud of the way our kids performed tonight. We never got really too high, and we kept our composure when we got down.”

Following the win, the Lady Pirates celebrated, but not like it was the end of the world. That is because, as Hall said, the really important part of the season has yet to arrive.

“This probably won’t be the last time we see them,” said Hall, alluding to both teams’ presence in the upcoming New Philadelphia Div. IV tournament. “Yes, we enjoyed the celebration, but it’s back to work on Monday to work on getting better.”

Misko finished the game with 10 points and 10 rebounds, both game highs. Courtney Put added 12, while Swihart had 10 points and five rebounds.

Miller was the lone Lady Hawk in double figures with 11 and also added a team-high four rebounds, the Lady Pirates outrebounding Hiland 27-23.

While the statistics were comparable between the two teams, it was Garaway’s poise and confidence down the stretch that, in the end, sent Hiland home on the long, lonely bus ride between Sugarcreek and Berlin along state Route 39.