Visiting Hilliard Davidson came out strong and beat Urbana, 63-38, in a boys basketball opener on Friday.
The Wildcats took a 19-15 lead after a quarter and parlayed it into a 35-25 halftime lead thanks to a flurry of offensive rebounds and baskets inside. The visitors dominated Urbana inside for the entirety of the game.
“That was probably my biggest disappointment for tonight,” UHS Coach Jeremy Dixon said. “I’m not upset with our effort, I’m not upset with our togetherness, I’m not upset with our fight, but I’m pretty disappointed in the way we rebounded tonight.”
Jace Underwood had to go to the bench with three fouls early in the second quarter and things got worse for Urbana after the intermission, when the Hillclimbers scored only three points in the third quarter and Davidson ran off a big streak to put the game out of reach.
“They would have been a big challenge if we weren’t short-handed. Now we know where we stand,” Dixon said.
Urbana, playing without a pair of starters due to disciplinary reasons, was unable to keep up with the Wildcats in transition and looked overmatched in the half-court as well.
“We were a little short-handed tonight. We only had three guys playing tonight that had ever played in a varsity game before,” Dixon said. “We’ve got to get better, there’s no doubt about it. But I’m not in there yelling and screaming at them. We’re going to get better – I have no doubt about that.”
Riley Emmons scored 10 points to lead Urbana, while Jace Underwood added 9 and Reid Taylor chipped in 8. Nick Livingston scored 19 points to lead the visitors.
Davidson won the jayvee game, 44-30. Urbana got 17 points from Isaiah Fonseca in that contest.
The UHS freshmen lost, 52-22. Gavin Spence had 8 points for UHS.
Urbana (0-1) plays at Ponitz on Tuesday.
