Trojan boys fall short of a state tourney berth

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY BRIAN HUXMAN
Give Tyson Ratzlaff a bit more time Saturday night?s sub-state championship basketball game, the Hillsboro Trojan boys would be playing in the state basketball tournament again this week.



Unfortunately for Ratzlaff and the Trojans, time ran out on a tremendous fourth-quarter run that left Hillsboro six points short of a return trip to Hutchinson, as Osage City prevailed, 51-45.



?You have to give Osage a lot of credit, because they played a great game tonight,? coach Darrel Knoll said. ?I thought we came out and competed really hard, but down the stretch, they just made more shots than we did. They really hit their free throws and that was the difference there at the end.?



Osage City pushed its way to its biggest lead of the night late in the final period, 44-33, after senior post Chris Pitts scored on a layup after beating Hillsboro?s pressure defense.



But the Trojans weren?t finished. Jeremy Loewen, who put together a tremendous game for the Trojans, was fouled on a drive to the basket with 1:12 remaining, and hit both free throws to cut the lead to eight.



Osage junior Josh Briggs then missed the front end of a one-and-one to give the Trojans new life. Ratzlaff took advantage of the opportunity, hitting a 3-pointer from at least eight feet beyond the 3-point line to cut the lead to five, 44-39, with one minute left in the game.



After Briggs redeemed his earlier miss by knocking down two free throws, Ratzlaff took a pass from point guard Grant Brubacher and drained another trey to cut the lead to 46-42.



Briggs then hit one-of-two free throws, Ratzlaff hit one more deep 3-pointer, making it a 47-45 game.



But that was as close as the Trojans could get. Osage City hit four free throws in the final seconds to seal a trip to the state tournament.



?What a great performance by Tyson Ratzlaff in the last couple of minutes of that game,? Knoll said. ?He did everything he could to take this team to state, and he is a great competitor. Hillsboro is very fortunate to have had him as a part of this program for the past four years.?



The late rally aside, the Trojans struggled all night from the floor, something Knoll attributes to Osage City?s tremendous pressure defense .



?We got some open looks tonight, but we didn?t get any boards all night,? he said. ?I thought they did a nice job on defense of really blocking out and making it tough on us inside. If you don?t get any second chances, it?s really hard to get in a rhythm, and you have to give them a lot of credit for that.?



The Trojans trailed throughout the second half, but made several runs to keep the game close.



?We never gave up tonight, and I was really proud of us for that,? Knoll said. ?It was a great run, and I?m very proud of how we played through all of the adversity all season.?



That adversity followed them on to the court Saturday night. Point guard and scoring leader Grant Brubacher battled the flu about as hard as he battled Osage City. Despite the illness, he scored seven points.



?I told these guys coming into this game that I wanted us to come in and play as hard as we possibly could tonight, and I thought we did that,? he added. ?We maybe didn?t execute as well as we would have liked to, but I think we have to be happy with the effort we put in to tonight?s game.?



The loss ends the Trojans? season at 15-8 and a streak of five straight state tournament appearances. But it also ends the careers of Ratzlaff, Jesse Hamm, Vance Frick and C.J. Hill, all of whom earned Knoll?s praise.



?I thought Jesse really came a long way this year,? Knoll said. ?For a guy who is lacking in height a little bit, he really did a tremendous job and he?s got to be happy with what he was able to accomplish this season.?



Knoll said Frick didn?t get as much playing time as he would have liked, but that didn?t mean his contribution wasn?t significant.



?The thing I really liked about Vance was the fact that he practiced hard and when he went into the games, he contributed,? he said.



Despite their injury problems this year, Hill and Ratzlaff have been the the emotional and court leaders of the Trojans for the past four years, Knoll said.



?Those two guys were just the heart and soul of this team for the time they?ve played with us,? he said. ?They are going to be really hard to replace.?



But Knoll said the future of the Trojans is bright, with a tremendous senior class coming back next season to lead the way, headed by Brubacher, who directed action on the court and picked up the scoring slack while Ratzlaff was sidelined.



Accompanying him will be Loewen, Scott Winter, Garrett Call and Nathan Fish.



?We?ve got some good young talent here that I think will be able to step in and fill (the seniors?) shoes,? he said.



Herington?From the looks of it, the Hillsboro Trojans appeared to be outsized in their sub-state seminfal match against Herington.



But Scott Winter, junior post player for Hillsboro, picked up the slack inside and the Trojans walked all over Herington, 64-46.



The Trojans got out to a 30-14 halftime lead behind nine points from Winter, who may have played the best game of his career.



?I think that is the type of effort we need out of Scott every night,? coach Darrel Knoll said. ?He has the ability to play like that all the time. He really did a heck of a job for us.?



Complementing Winter?s superb effort was an outstanding performance from senior Tyson Ratzlaff, who scored just nine points but had eight rebounds, seven steals and six assists in the game.



?Tyson played not like he didn?t want us to lose, but he played like he was telling our guys that we are not going to lose,? Knoll said.



?I think he showed that despite all of his injuries, he has some pretty good basketball left in him this season.?



Grant Brubacher scored a game high 18 points for Hillsboro.

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