After the prep basketball season ended this month, Hillsboro junior Ashley Hilton joined her club team on the softball diamond, where she was a first-team all-Jefferson County Activities Association performer last fall.
Hilton is talented enough to play either or both sports in college, leaving her with an important decision to make.
“I’m hoping to spend time to figure that out,” Hilton said. “Which sport can get me the farthest?”
On the hardwood, for the second year in a row, Hilton was named to the all-JCAA large-schools first team. She also won the league most valuable player award, a year after older sister Kaylee, a 2024 graduate, earned it.
“It’s a really big honor,” the younger Hilton said. “It’s nice to see all the hard work pay off and I am very proud of it. It was a big step, losing my sister and a lot of the seniors.”
This season Hilton topped 1,000 career points, surpassing Kaylee, and then broke Lexi Close’s school career record for points, ending with 1,376. Her next target is 2,000 points.
“I never thought I’d get this close (to 2,000),” she said. “It’s hard to fathom. It would be a great goal.”
Hilton finished in the top 10 in scoring in the St. Louis area with 20 points per game. Since she became a starter her freshman year, the Hawks have gone 60-14, captured three conference titles – they split the crown with Festus this season – and won a district championship in 2024.
Hillsboro finished this season 25-3 after losing 28-23 to Farmington in the Class 5 District 1 final. The Knights were subsequently beaten 61-33 by Lift for Life in the quarterfinals. In a similarly low-scoring first game of the season, Hillsboro beat Farmington 32-25.
“Our offense, the connection and chemistry wasn’t there (in the championship game),” Ashley said. “Farmington’s defense did their homework and found our weaknesses and they pushed those.”
“She was pretty consistent all year,” Hillsboro head coach Andrew Hubbard said. “The (second) Farmington game was the only game she was held below 10 points. She scores in a lot of ways, but next year it will be tougher because all the teams have seen tons of film on her.”
A water-main break the week of districts forced the school to close and the Hawks to adjust their practice regimen. That, along with the 90-mile drive to Cape Girardeau for the final were factors in the Hawks’ out-of-sync play, head coach Andrew Hubbard said.
A 19-0 run staked the Hawks to a 20-11 lead at halftime against the Knights. But Carlei Clubb’s 3-point basket in the fourth quarter was their only scoring in a bleak second half.
“Their defense got active and we couldn’t get anything going inside, and my girls went into a shell and were passing up good shots,” Hubbard said. “The girls got tight once we missed a couple of shots.
“Both teams in the second half had long possessions. We’d try to go over the top and they’d force a bad pass or get a steal. We let the pressure get to us a little bit and it caused us to have some issues.”
Hubbard can look forward to welcoming Hiton and point guard Kyra Matlock back next season for their senior campaigns. The duo have played together for years. Matlock also made the all-conference first team after finishing in the top five in the St. Louis area with more than five assists per game. She was tops among county players with 4.6 steals per contest. Her shutdown defense helped Hillsboro allow just 34.2 points per game.
“I could not have been happier when she got first-team all-conference,” Hubbard said. “We’re playing man (to-man) defense every game, and to average five steals in that defense is impressive. Her assists went up and her turnovers went down. She improved in every way she could. Press breaks, sideline passes, get the ball to Kyra.”
A year after being named the coach of the year on the small-schools side of the JCAA, at St. Pius X, Aaron Portell received the same honor in the large-schools division after leading Festus to a record of 20-6 and a share of the conference title. The Tigers’ season ended with a first-round district loss to a different bunch of Tigers from Cape Girardeau Central. Portell is the third head coach in three years at Festus.
“My style takes a while to get used to,” Portell said. “I’m fortunate to get the girls to buy into working hard, and when they do that, you win games.”
Portell will get two first-team all-JCAA guards back next season, after junior Olivia Madden and sophomore Lillian Kennedy were chosen. Madden averaged nine points and five assists per game while Kennedy and junior teammate Alyzah Scaggs (second-team in 2024 and 2025) led the Tigers with 13 points per game. Scaggs and Kennedy also were first and second on the team in steals.
“Opposing coaches voted for Olivia, so you know how important she is,” Portell said. “If she’s not on our team, we’re going to struggle to bring the ball up and teams are going to press us more. We don’t win 20 games without her.”
In the Festus 1-3-1 zone defense, Kennedy’s job is to go to the top and disrupt teams. She injured her knee in a loss to Farmington at the end of the regular season and didn’t play against Cape Central. Portell said Kennedy doesn’t need surgery but will take two months to recover.
“She’s quick and confident,” he said. “She was fearless. You can tell how important she was for us defensively. We gave up 68 points against Cape. We didn’t have point pressure on defense.”
Perryville sophomore 5-11 guard Abygail Amberger also was selected to the first team. The Pirates were 9-18 overall and 2-6 in the conference. Their season ended with a 47-38 loss to St. Pius X in the Class 4 District 2 playoffs. Amberger set a school record in December when she made 16 free throws in a game, a loss to Festus. She also made five three-point baskets in a loss to Fredericktown in February.