The Hillsboro boys took care of their business early, efficiently and impressively with a 64-26 win over Peabody-Burns in the first round of the Berean Academy Class 2A sub-state tournament played Tuesday at Brown Gymnasium in Hillsboro.
The Trojans led 25-1 after one quarter and 44-9 by halftime. By intermission, Christian Ratzlaff had poured in 20 points on 8-for-10 shooting from the floor, including two of three three-point attempts.
Coach Darrel Knoll sat starters Ratzlaff, Brett Weinbrenner and Evan Ollenburger the entire second half. Even so, with the Trojan bench carrying most of the playing time, Hills?boro bumped the margin to 36 points by the end of the third quarter.
The running clock ran the entire fourth quarter as the reserves more than held their own, even though the Peabody-Burns starters re-entered the game for the final period.
With the win, Hillsboro, seeded second in the tournament, improves to 18-3 for the season and will play in the semifinals Friday night, likely against Moundridge, seeded third at 16-4. If so, it would be a rematch of an early-season matchup that the Trojans won. Peabody-Burns ends its season with a 6-15 record.