That's what the Hiland girls did on Thursday night at the Perry Reese Jr. Center, improving to 4-0 with a 66-36 win over Inter-Valley Conference rival Strasburg in a game Hawks coach Dave Schlabach called his group's worst of the early season.

"We had a ton of breakdowns defensively in the first half," said Schlabach, whose Hawks gave up 20 first-half points, which was half a point under what their first three opponents averaged for the entire game.  "Our stretches of not taking care of the ball were frustrating.  For whatever reason we weren't at the top of our game tonight.  Our supporting cast didn't produce the way we've been accustomed to seeing them produce.

"It's a long season and I guess there's going to be nights like this.  We were frustrated because we expect a little more from our kids.  I just know we didn't play well and up to our standards.  The score is a little irrelevant.  Obviously, we'll always take a win, but that was the poorest game we played all year.  We had a lot of unforced stuff like silly turnovers."

Schlabach's biggest source of disappointment came in a first quarter that saw Strasburg have its way in the paint offensively.  The Hawks, who had double-digit leads through first quarters of their first three games, led just 15-13 at the end of eight minutes.

"We gave up a lot of uncontested shots in the first quarter and gave up a lot of things early on, allowing them to get into a rhythm," Schlabach said.

Shooting guard Leah Hochstetler quickly turned Hiland's fortunes and the game around in the second quarter.  The senior drained the first three buckets of the period, all 3-pointers, to give Hiland a more comfortable 24-13 advantage. Hochstetler stayed on fire the rest of the night, leading the Hawks with 22 points, including 6-of-8 from beyond the arc.

"It was nice to see Leah Hochstetler get on track," Schlabach said.  "She's been struggling.  We didn't start her tonight and really challenged her to get back to her level of play that she's capable of.  She seemed to respond and was ready to go."

After a bucket by Meredith Freitag and Lisa Miller ended Hiland's 9-0 run to start the period and cut the lead to 24-17, Lindsay Stuckey and Hochstetler hit back-to-back baskets, putting Hiland back up by 11.

Strasburg hit a foul shot to knock the lead back to 10, but that's when the Hawks went on a 9-0 run that essentially put the Tigers away by halftime.

This time it was the other Hochstetler sister, Launa, who caught fire, scoring seven of  Hiland's nine points in the pivotal stretch.

Strasburg's offense never did get on track in the second half with quarters of seven and nine points.

"In the second half I thought we played pretty hard and did some better things (on defense)," Schlabach said.  "We asked the kids for a second half of 10 points or less and they got 16."

While Strasburg struggled on offense, the Hawks lit up the scoreboard in a third quarter that produced 25 points.  A 14-0 spurt over the final half of the period put Hiland in complete control at 62-26.  Stuckey scored six of her 11 points in that stretch.

Along with the double-figure efforts from Stuckey and Leah Hochstetler, Launa Hochstetler contributed 13 points while dishing out seven assists.  Hiland outrebounded the Tigers 27-23, with Krista Beechy pulling down eight boards and Stuckey adding six for the Hawks.