The Trojans complete a dominating run through the state tournament in Hutch with a 50-31 win over Sacred Heart in the championship game
The Hillsboro girls completed a dream season and an impressive run through the Class 3A state tournament with a 50-31 victory over Sacred Heart in the championship match on Saturday.
Hillsboro trailed only once in the contest -- 3-2 after a 3-pointers by Sacred Heart's Abby Witmann 49 seconds into the contest. But when JuliAnne Chisholm scored her second basket of the game 24 seconds later, Hillsboro led for good at 4-3.
Hillsboro pushed its early lead to 12-5 with 2:53 left in the period, but the Knights responded with five unanswered points to close the gap to 12-10 at the first break.
Amy Neufeld scored in the early moments of the second period to launch an 11-0 run through the first 2:53. But Hillsboro hit a cool spell from the floor and the Knights closed a 23-12 deficit to 23-16 by halftime.
Sacred Heart got as close as 25-21 in the opening minutes of the third quarter, but Hannah Marsh drained a 3-pointer and followed that with a layup off a steal by Chisholm to push the margin back to 30-21 at the 4:36 mark.Both teams struggled for points the rest of the period, but a 3-pointer by Samantha Soyez with one minute left put Hillsboro on top by 10 at the final break, 35-25.
The Trojans simply dominated the final period, launching another 11-0 run in the first 5:15 of the quarter and finished with a 15-6 advantage for the period..
Chisholm led HHS with 17 points and 14 rebounds as Hillsboro shot 52 percent (23-44 from the field.
But as has been the case all tournament, the Trojan defense was stifling, limiting the Knights to 19 percent shooting (10-52).
With the win, Hillsboro finishes its championship season with a 23-3 record.
