The Hilliard Red Flashes entered their tilt with the Hawthorne Hornets with three consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with four. Hilliard managed a 66-60 win over Hawthorne on Thursday. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
Leading Hilliard to victory were Malcom Warthen and CJ Hall. Warthen scored 24 points along with six rebounds and three steals, while Hall scored 25 points along with seven rebounds and three steals. The match was Hall's fourth in a row with at least ten points. Kevin Thomas was another key contributor, scoring nine points along with six rebounds and four steals.
When it comes to explaining why Hawthorne lost, one person who can't be blamed is CJ Ingram . Despite the final result, he scored 32 points along with eight rebounds. Ingram scored a full 53.3% of Hawthorne's points, the third time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Caleb Rollerson, who scored 11 points along with seven rebounds.
Hilliard's victory was their seventh straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 11-2. As for Hawthorne, they have not been sharp recently, as they've lost four of their last five games, which put a noticeable dent in their 4-4 record this season.
Hilliard will be playing at home against Charlton County at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday. Hopefully Charlton County focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 19 last Saturday. Hawthorne's road trip will continue as they head out to face Chiefland at 8:00 p.m. on January 11th.
