BATTLE GROUND — Mason Hill doesn’t know what it is about Battle Ground High School that makes it easy for the Union High senior to find his stroke.
Early, in fact.
“It feels good every time I’m in here,” Hill said. “During warmups, I’m feeling it when I’m shooting, and I’m lucky enough to be able to knock them down in the game.”
Hill definitely felt it Saturday to help the No. 1 Titans remain unbeaten with their 66-64 victory over Gonzaga Prep.
Hill’s game-high of 29 points was due in part to his 7 of 12 shooting from 3-point range, surpassing his previous career-best of 26 points in a 73-72 league victory at Battle Ground on Jan. 28. He went 5 of 7 on 3s in the second half when Union built its largest lead at 58-45.
“If you just keep making them, in your head, you feel like it’s going in every single time,” Hill said.
But Saturday also proved to be Union’s second-closest margin of victory to seal a spot in next week’s Class 4A state quarterfinals at the Hardwood Classic in Tacoma.
Union (25-0) gets a first-round bye and plays at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. It’s the second straight year the program has won its regional game to earn a direct state quarterfinal spot, but first undefeated at this stage.
“It’s really good,” said senior guard Kaden Horn, who was one of three Titans in double figures with 10 points. “I feel like our confidence is going up after every game and not having Brad (Lackey, out for the season with an ACL injury). We need to keep playing how we’re playing and build it up.”
The 25-0 mark is the best record through this stage of a season in program history, but Saturday’s tilt tested the Titans in different ways than their Jan. 4 nonleague meeting which Union won, 77-59.
The Titans led just twice through three quarters before taking the lead for good at 45-42 to open the fourth quarter. That was part of a 14-3 scoring run that gave Union its largest lead at 58-45 at the 5:04 mark of the fourth quarter. Josh Reznick had all eight of his points in a 3-minute span to help the Titans take the lead for good, but the Bullpups never went away quietly behind senior Liam Lloyd.
The senior guard and Grand Canyon signee, Lloyd had 20 of his game-high 32 points after halftime. He hit 5 of his next 6 at one stretch, and helped G-Prep used a 9-0 run to get within 58-54. G-Prep got as close as 64-61 inside 1 minute left before Hodges Flemming’s 3-pointer at the final horn.
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UNION 66, GONZAGA PREP 64
GONZAGA PREP — Liam Lloyd 32, Joe Few 6, Hodges Flemming 9, Aidan VonBuchwaldt 8, Will Reeves 9. Totals 25 (9) 4-7 64.
UNION — Mason Hill 29, Tanner Toolson 14, Kaden Horn 10, Josh Reznick 8, Ty McCullum 1, Izaiah Vongnath 0, Ariah Briscoe 4. Totals 22 (12) 10-15 66.
Gonzaga Prep 13 9 20 22 – 64
Union 8 13 24 21 – 66
