The Hawks faced off against AMCC opponent La Roche today at home in the Hafner Recreation Center. It was a close game with La Roche who stays undefeated in AMCC play. The Hawks fall to 1-5 after the 65-64 defeat.

HIGHLIGHTS
Ashley Schroeder led the way for the Hawks today collecting a team high 23 points in the loss while also managing to wrangle in 4 rebounds. Mackenzie Catan and Grace Zabawa both earned 12 points. Zabawa also managed to get 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Alesia Hamm led the team with 13 rebounds and Maria Spinelli also helped in the rebound category earning 8.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The first quarter was a tight knit one where no team could gain an edge. La Roche started off the game doing a full court press but the Hawks stayed aggressive managing to constantly break it and causing them to switch up their game plan. Maria Spinelli was the first to score for Hilbert making 2 free throws. This would Ashley Schroeder as she would go on to score 9 points the rest of the first quarter from all around the court. The quarter would end in a stalemate at 13.
• The Hawks aggressive play led to a lead in fouls and they continuously cashed in helping to grow a lead in the second. Belle Oakley and Alesia Hamm would both hit for 2 at the start of this quarter. Due to the Hawks strong play La Roche switched back to a full court press with 2 minutes left in the half but this would not stop the Hawks. Ashely Schroeder kept up her good play as well helping Hilbert gain a 31-23 lead going into halftime.
• La Roche came out of the halftime break strong and managed to gain their first lead of the game until Mackenzie Catan hit from 3 point range to take back the lead 37-36. La Roche continued to push but again she would hit from 3 to tie the game back up at 40. La Roche would then score in the paint three times in a row and would regain the lead. Grace Zabawa finished this quarter strong with multiple made layups to keep it close going into the final quarter of play.
• With the close game being on the line the Hawks did not stop and fought back into it. With 2 minutes remaining La Roche led by 3 until Mackenzie Catan hit a baseline jumper and made it a 1 point game. The Hawks began to foul attempting to get possession of the ball and in the final seconds of the game down by 3 Grace Zabawa would hit from deep but would need to one foot further away to make it a 3. The Hawks would lose by 1 point, 65-64.

GAME NOTES
Hilbert shot 23 for 68 today while also shooting 5 for 12 from 3 point range and 13 for 18 from the free throw line. La Roche managed to dominate the game in the paint as they scored more than half of their points in the paint with 38 while Hilbert only scored 20.

UP NEXT
Next on the schedule for them is an away game against the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. This game will be on Wednesday January 25^th at 7:00 PM.

Editor’s Note: This story was shared with The Scribe by the Hilbert Athletics Department.