AYERSVILLE 12/27/2013—The Hilltop Lady Cadets played a tightly contested game in the semi-finals of the 2013 Ayersville Holiday Tournament, going up against the hosts of the tournament, the Ayersville Pilots. In the end, Ayersville would grab the victory, defeating the Cadets 48-44.
The Pilots took control to start the game, scoring 19 points and holding the Cadets to only seven in the first quarter.
The rolls would be reversed in the second period, as the Cadet offense would find its groove. After only scoring seven points in the first quarter, Hilltop would put 16 points on the board in the second. The Cadet defense would also step up, holding the Pilots to only eight in the quarter, and pulling within four points at halftime, trailing by a slim 27-23 margin.
Ayersville extended their lead to six point after three periods of play, tallying up 12 points to Hilltop’s ten, putting the score at 39-33 after three quarters in favor of the Pilots.
The Cadets attempt to pull off a fourth quarter comeback, and hopefully move on to the finals of the Holiday Tournament, but that rally would fall just short, as they were only able to cut the Ayersville lead down to four by the time the final buzzer sounded. The Cadets would fall 48-44 at the hands of the Ayersville Pilots.\
With 16 points, Hannah Bleikamp was the leading scoring for the Cadets. She was followed by Emily Armbruster who contributed 11, LeAnn Joost was next with seven, Destiny Denton and Cierra Grant both put up three points a piece, and Kailey Creamer and Kayla Settlemire rounded out the Hilltop scoring, both tallying up two.
-Mitchell Peebles