{"id":31191,"date":"2025-12-05T03:18:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T08:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=31191"},"modified":"2025-12-05T18:53:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T23:53:20","slug":"patriots-win-ugly-against-archers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/05\/patriots-win-ugly-against-archers\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots win ugly against Archers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RANDY HISNER<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sometimes you just gotta win ugly…”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Heritage girls\u2019 basketball team scored the final five points of the game Thursday at home against South Side to erase a 31-28 Archer lead and pull off a 33-31 victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Freshman Kierstyn Hess (#5) and junior Olivia Lybarger (#3) set up at the top of the Heritage 2-3 zone<\/em>. (Photo by Randy Hisner)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Freshman Kierstyn Hess was the star of the final moments, pulling the Patriots within one at 31-30 with a drive on the right side with 2:32 to go and then stealing the ball at half court with 54 seconds left. That steal led to a fast break that ended with Audrey Meyer\u2019s layup to give Heritage the lead for good. Hess added a free throw with 2.7 seconds left to make the final margin over the winless Archers (0-9).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Proud to sponsor Heritage Athletics on WZBD.com!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The win evened the Patriots\u2019 record at 4-4, but they almost blew it. They led 25-14 at the half after breaking a 12-12 first quarter tie by thrashing the Archers to the tune of 13-2 in the second quarter, thanks in large part to six points from sophomore Molly Krey and four from Hess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Heritage sophomore Molly Krey attempts a three-pointer from the right corner. (Photo by Randy Hisner)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But then the Pats\u2019 shooting matched the frigid outdoor temperatures for the first 13:28 of the second half. They managed only Krey\u2019s third-quarter three-pointer during that stretch, as the Archers went on a 17-3 run to go in front, 31-28. The rally was capped by Amaiya Shetler\u2019s steal and layup at the 2:49 mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Elise Hissong penetrates the lane<\/em>. (Photo by Randy Hisner)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s when Hess and Meyer started their clutch scoring, and the Patriots\u2019 defense shut out the Archers the rest of the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes you gotta win ugly, as long as you\u2019re winning the game and pulling it out,\u201d said exuberant first-year Heritage coach Jason Miller. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head coach Jason Miller spoke with the Z-Team after the win. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe in every one of these girls,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019re a family, and we believe in each other. These girls just keep fighting, man.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Miller knows the Patriots are relying on defense to keep them in games. The offense is still a work in progress, as evidenced by the Pats\u2019 dismal 29% shooting from the field (13-for-45).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to go as our defense goes,\u201d Miller said. \u201cWhen our offense catches up to our defense\u2014I\u2019ve been telling people this all year\u2014we\u2019re going to be a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
First-year Heritage coach Jason Miller exhorts his team during a late time out in the Patriots’s win Thursday. (Photo by Randy Hisner)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But Wednesday it was defense. The Patriots used full-court pressure and a variety of half-court zone defenses to frustrate the Archers into 14-of-48 (29%) field goal shooting, including an icy 1-for-17 (6%) on three-point attempts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
South Side’s Bri’Tanya Diedrich-Williams, who led all scorers with 20 points, looks for an opening in the tough Heritage zone defense. (Photo by Randy Hisner)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got a great player on their team (sophomore Bri-Tanya Diedrich-Williams) that can score,\u201d noted Miller. \u201cI thought we did a really good job of shutting her down as much as we possibly could. It was a team effort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Diedrich-Williams led all scorers with 20 points, but she had to take a lot of shots (26) to reach that total. Shetler added six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
\"\"Local official Tony Bowman (right) chats with one of his partners during a time out. (Photo by Randy Hisner)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Krey led the balanced Heritage attack with nine points. Olivia Lybarger, who made a pair of threes in the first half, scored eight. Hess had seven, Elise Hissong five. Audrey and Addison Meyer scored two each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heritage hit three out of four free throws (75%); South Side managed only 2-of-10 (20%). The Patriots had 30 turnovers, the Archers 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heritage will host South Adams Saturday to kick off ACAC play. Game time is 6:30 P.M.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RANDY HISNER WZBD.com “Sometimes you just gotta win ugly…” The Heritage girls\u2019 basketball team scored the final five<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":31192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[41,15,51,26],"class_list":["post-31191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-basketball","tag-featured","tag-heritage","tag-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_5733-scaled.jpeg?fit=2560%2C1839&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31191"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31206,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31191\/revisions\/31206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}