This time, the Trojans drained 13 of 14 opportunities at the charity stripe in the final three minutes to transform a 54-54 tie into a 67-59 victory over Haven in front of an appreciative home crowd on Friday.

"I've talked about the character of this team all year," coach Darrel Knoll said afterward. "I really think we do play to win, especially when the game is on the line.

"We had to make our free throws," he added. "We knew it would come down to that. I was very pleased with everybody stepping up to the line, maintaining composure and making their shots."

Without that final surge, this game easily could have gone the other way.

Hillsboro had trouble hitting its shots from the floor early in the game. In fact, it was only a 5-foot runner by Kyle Kroeker with three seconds left that enabled HIllsboro to tie the game, 11-11, at the first break.

His basket was only the fourth in 12 attempts by the Trojans. Fortunately, two of the other baskets were 3-pointers by Eric Weinbrenner.

Hillsboro warmed up in the second quarter (9-14), thanks to 4-for-6 shooting by Derek Hamm. Even so, Haven, aided by three 3-pointers in the period, only trailed by one point until Kroeker came through big again. This time the junior nailed a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Hillsboro a 33-29 halftime lead.

If Haven was rattled by Kroeker's heroics, it didn't show it. Instead, Ben Drake scored back-to-back baskets in the first 47 seconds of the third quarter to tie the game at 33.

With 2:13 left in the period, Drake struck again, this time with a 3-pointer from the top of the key to give the Wildcats their first lead of the night, 40-37.

Haven still led by three, 42-39, when Isiah Barfield scored on a drive to the hoop with 7.6 seconds left in the quarter.

But it was Hillsboro's night for last-second baskets. This time, Daniel Deckert took a kick-out pass from Weinbrenner and drained an NBA-length 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded to tie the game at 42.

The roaring crowd in Brown Gymnasium either had to believe it was Hillsboro's destiny to win this game or wonder if the Trojans had used up their quota of buzzer-beaters for one night.

Through the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, the lead flip-flopped between the two teams. Hillsboro finally inched its way to a 54-49 advantage on a 10-foot jumper by Patrick Harrison with 4:26 to go.

As it turned out, the Trojans would register only one more field goal attempt the rest of the game-and miss it.

But if the game was going to turn into a free-throw shooting contest, it appeared Haven might win it as the Wildcats made five of six attempts over a 51-second span to tie the game at 54 with 3:16 to play.

But when Weinbrenner sank both ends of a one-and-one with 3:03 to play, the game took on a very different pattern: Haven would miss a shot, Hillsboro would rebound and a Trojan would be fouled shortly thereafter.

In fact, Haven made only two of its nine shots during the final three minutes. The only rebound the Wildcats managed on the offensive end became a 2-point put-back by Barfield with 41 seconds left and the outcome determined.

"That's something we talked about all week," Knoll said about Hillsboro's effort on the boards down the stretch. "Against these guys, you really need to limit them to one shot because they're just too good of shooters."

Drake's meaningless 3-pointer with 20 seconds left was countered by two more free throws from Weinbrenner-the Trojan who started the streak-to round out the scoring with 8.9 seconds to go.

Weinbrenner and Kroeker were both 6-for-6 from the line during that stretch and Lucas Hamm went 1-for-2.

For Kroeker, it was a night to remember as he finished with career-high 21 points on 4-for-9 shooting from the floor, including three 3-pointers, and 10-for-10 shooting from the free-throw line.

"I thought he played a great game," Knoll said.

Coming-Hillsboro will put its 16-0 record on the line with three games during the week.

On Tuesday, the Trojans were scheduled to play a resurgent Wichita Collegiate squad that was 12-4 for the season. A full report of that game will appear in this week's Free Press Extra.

On Friday, the Trojans travel to Ellinwood (4-11), a place where Hillsboro has struggled at times to play well.

The following day, they travel to Lindsborg to face a talented Smoky Valley team (10-6) in game that was postponed Feb. 8 because of snow.

The regular season concludes Tuesday when the Trojans host Hoisington.