NECEDAH — The Hillsboro girls’ basketball team improved to 3–1 overall and 2–0 in the Scenic Bluffs with a convincing 47–30 victory at Necedah Friday night.

The Tigers jumped out to a 12–2 first-quarter lead and never trailed the rest of the night.

“The key to our quick start was our pressure,” said Hillsboro head coach Scott Egan. “Our press was creating turnovers for easy baskets, and we were active in our man-to-man defense which also created a lot of turnovers. Offensively, we saw Shelby Levy get going early which has been a struggle for her this year.”

Levy finished the game with seven points and six rebounds.

Freshman Sydney Johnson scored a team-high 10 points to lead the Tigers.

Junior Destiny Shore added nine points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals.

Fellow junior Morgan Huntley also scored nine points.

Junior Mackenzie Sullivan chipped in six points, six rebounds, six assists and two steals.

“I’ve seen great improvement from our girls since the first game loss to North Crawford,” said Egan. “I knew the first game was going to be difficult because of the short time to prepare. Since then, we’ve had more practice on the new systems I’ve put in place this year. We’ve been a scrappy team and enjoy the grind out, defensive games.  If we can get our offense going, I feel that the sky is the limit for this team.”

Last Tuesday Hillsboro opened conference play with a 44–38 come-from-behind victory over visiting New Lisbon.

The Tigers lead 18–16 at the break, but fell behind 27–20 late in the third-quarter at the Rockets’ opened the second half on an 11–2 run.

Hillsboro scored the final four points of the quarter to cut the lead to three.

Then in the fourth quarter, Destiny Shore, who was in foul trouble in the first half, scored all nine of her points to rally the Tigers.

“She has been the player we’ve leaned on at the end of games to step up and make shots, and for the most part, she has came through for us,” said Egan.

Shore hit a huge 3-pointer to tie the game with about three left and never trailed again.

The Tigers score on their next trip down court and closed out the comeback by going 7-for-8 from the free throw line, including a perfect 4-for-4 from Shore.

“I know that many of the games in this conference are going to come down to the final quarter,” said Egan. “To be able to grind out wins when your best scorer is in foul trouble and a team is playing as well as New Lisbon was on that night says a lot about our team. When we went down seven in the third quarter, I thought our girls might start hanging their heads and giving up on the game. Instead, they kept fighting and scrapping and were able to come back on a team that had all the momentum. I was really proud of the girls for the fight they put up.”

Junior Brittany Borchardt shared team-high scoring honors with nine points to go along with two assists and a steal.

Sullivan added four points, six rebounds, six assists and five steals.

Levy had six points and a team-high seven rebounds.

Hillsboro hosts Bangor tonight and will travel to Kickapoo Friday before hosting Riverdale on Monday.