After eight days off, Hillside basketball bounces back, knocks off Middle Creek
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Hillside entered the NCHSAA 4A playoffs with “a little turbulence,” as coach Rashard Lee-Worthy put it.
The Hornets blazed through the first half of their Triangle 8 schedule, but slipped up early this month with three losses in their last six games — including to Riverside, on a buzzer beater, in the conference tournament semifinals.
“We needed to bounce back from that internally,” Lee-Worthy said.
And when Hillside got its chance Thursday, it did just that. The No. 5 seed Hornets routed No. 12 Middle Creek, 54-34, to advance to the 4A round of 16. They’ll travel to No. 4 seed Hoggard in Wilmington on Saturday for a spot in the state quarterfinals.
“The message tonight was to just come out and give it your heart, man,” junior Elijah Thomas said. “That’s all we can do. We have to take it one game at a time. That’s exactly what my boys did.”
By virtue of their first-round bye, the Hornets (20-5) tipped off Thursday against the Mustangs (20-8) having not played since their Feb. 19 loss to Riverside. Thomas said, after an eight-day layoff, the team was antsy to get back out on the court — and more than ready to set a tone.
Hillside did that with an 18-9 lead after the first quarter — with a majority of its points coming from deep. The Hornets entered the game shooting 80 of 375 (21 percent) from deep on the season, but they sank four 3-pointers in the first eight minutes. Leading scorer Trey Crews had three of them.
“They work hard, and it carried over today,” Lee-Worthy said.
Elijah Thomas ‘doesn’t take nights off’
In the second quarter, the Hornets opted for their usual play style — lots of penetration, shots in the paint and fast breaks — to even more solid results.
Thomas had a putback dunk, Crews made tough layups and senior Dr’ake Thompson provided key offensive rebounds and four straight points to end the half as Hillside built up a 34-17 lead at the break.
Middle Creek, which snuck by Enloe, 64-62, on Tuesday night, couldn’t seem to get anyone going in the first half. The Mustangs have been without their leading scorer, guard Tharius Suggs (17.9 points per game), since Feb. 19. And against Hillside, the team’s other top scorer, forward Sam Perez, struggled against the Hornets’ zone defense.
Hillside kept its foot on the gas with a full-court press to open the second half. Crews, a lanky 6-foot guard, was effective in trapping Middle Creek’s guards and getting deflections when that happened. Such stellar defense only added to his overall performance — the senior also poured in a team-high 23.
“Trey was wonderful,” Thomas said. “I told him before the game, ‘I got your back, baby.’”
Middle Creek made its best run of the game midway through the third, when it cut its deficit to 36-25. On Hillside’s next possession, though, Thomas grabbed an offensive rebound in traffic and scored on a putback layup. It wasn’t incredibly flashy, but it was plenty important.
“I think that’s what really put my boys on top,” he said. “When I brought the energy and got that putback. I could feel it everywhere in the gym.”
Lee-Worthy agreed: “Elijah is the kind of player that makes sure that everybody understands the importance of what we’re doing. He doesn’t take nights off ... It’s every night. It’s contagious.”
Next up for Hillside: Hoggard
After Thomas’ layup, Hillside promptly sank two 3-pointers, boosted its lead to 44-26 and got through the rest of the game without much trouble. The Hornets led 49-31 late in the fourth quarter before slowly phasing out their starters against the Mustangs.
“Coming into this game, we felt like we’d been off for a minute — like the (NBA) All Star break, man,” Thomas said. “We took our time to get back in our groove, and once we got out there we knew what time it was. It was time to go.”
Up next for the Hornets is a Saturday game at Hoggard (22-6) in the round of 16.
Hillside has a practice Friday and plans to scrounge together whatever information it can find on its next opponent. But Lee-Worthy said that won’t change the mindset his team has always worked under — the same one they showed in their 20-point win Thursday.
“At this point, everybody we play, wherever we play, is going to be a tough game, a tough team,” he said. “We won’t expect anything easy.”
