ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DON RATZLAFF
When a team loses focus late in the game against a good team, no lead is safe.
The Hillsboro girls experienced the hard end of that lesson in a heart-wrenching 44-42 loss to Abilene in the third-place game of the Dickinson County Classic in Chapman on Saturday afternoon.
Solid play against a young but talented Cowgirl team had enabled the Trojans to transform a 10-5 deficit after one quarter into a 33-26 advantage after three quarters.
Hillsboro still led by seven, 35-28, with 51/2 minutes to go, but following a put-back by 6-foot freshman Gina Hullett with 5:22 to go, the Trojans began unraveling.
On the offensive end, the Trojans missed four of their next six free-throw attempts and began fouling the Cowgirls on the defensive end. Abilene responded with a field goal and six of eight free throws to take a 38-37 lead with 2:29 to play.
Emily Ratzlaff gave Hillsboro its last lead with two free throws at the 2:07 mark. A field goal by Abilene and a free throw by Hillsboro’s JuliAnne Chisholm tied the game at 40 with 1:40 to play. The Cowgirls missed their next four shots from the field before Hullett sank a pair of free throws with only 31 seconds left.
Hannah Marsh then took a feed from Ratzlaff and scored in the paint to tie the game at 42 with 18 ticks left. It was only the second field goal the Trojans had attempted all quarter.
After Hullett sank the second of two free throws with just seven seconds left, Emma Ostermann intercepted Marsh’s inbounds pass and was quickly fouled. With four seconds on the clock, the 5-9 freshman made the second of two free throws for a 44-42 lead that stood up when the Trojans failed to get off a shot before the final buzzer.
“We’re just not used to knowing what to do with a lead,” coach Becky Carlson said after the game. “We came down and fouled way too much, made some not very smart defensive moves-it’s kind of like we got ahead and thought we could do whatever we wanted.”
Hillsboro put up only three shots in the opening period, including a desperation heave as the buzzer sounded. Abilene, meanwhile, threw up 12 shots and made only three-but two of them were 3-pointers. A pair of free throws by Jessica McAsey with 37 seconds left gave Abilene its 10-5 lead at the first break.
Eight points from Trojan sophomore JuliAnne Chisholm and six by classmate Marsh, including a bucket with four seconds left on the clock, helped tie the game at 22 by intermission.
The Trojan defense limited the Cowgirls to 1-for-6 shooting in the third quarter, and Chisholm’s 10-foot jumper at the buzzer gave the Trojans their 33-26 lead heading into that fateful final frame.
“It’s just like when we got ahead, we lost our focus,” Carlson said about the debacle that ensued. “We were really focused until that point.”
Twenty-eight of Abilene’s 44 points were scored by a trio of freshman led by Hullett with a game-high 17.
The Trojan defense limited Abilene to 31 percent shooting (13 for 42). HHS shot a solid 48 percent from the floor, but put up 15 fewer shots (13 of 27).
The Trojans made a respectable 60 percent of their free-throws (15 of 25) for the game, but only seven of 13 in the final period. Abilene made 16 of 24 for the game, including 10 of 16 in the final quarter.
“Abilene has a good team,” Carlson said. “They’ve got some good shooters and are very physical inside. It was a good game for us, even if we didn’t win it.
“I think (the girls) have the kind of character that they will learn from this,” Carlson said. “This is as good a team as I’ve seen for a long time for Hillsboro basketball. We just have to build on that.”
Rock Creek-Hillsboro earned a berth in the third-place game with a 49-37 win over Rock Creek on Friday.
The Trojans built a 12-0 lead to start the game and were never seriously threatened after that-but at the same time, they had trouble putting the Mustangs away until late in the contest.
“They just don’t quit,” coach Becky Carlson said of the opposition. “Like they did against Chapman (on Monday), they just keep coming at you. But I thought we did a good job of holding them off and sticking with it.”
Rock Creek managed its first field goal of the game with 1:08 left in the opening quarter, then followed it 38 seconds later with a 3-pointer from Kiersten McNutt that cut Hillsboro’s lead to 12-5 as the first quarter ended.
The Trojans led by as many as 10 points and then as few as five during the second quarter before a basket in the paint by Tina Frick with 12 seconds left returned the margin to seven points at intermission, 20-13.
In the third quarter, HHS got a six-point shot in the arm from Amy Duerksen to build its lead to 35-23 by the end of the quarter
When Rock Creek’s Jessica Zentner nailed a 3-pointer to cut Hillsboro lead to 38-28 with just under six minutes to go, Trojan senior Emily Ratzlaff finally stuck the dagger in the Mustangs’ heart with an eight-point burst over the next two minutes, including a pair of 3-pointers.
Her assist to Whitney Washmon accounted for the other two points in a 10-2 run that put the Trojans on top, 48-30, with 3:49 to play.
Carlson pulled her starters soon after, and the Mustangs, who continued their full-court pressure until the final buzzer, finished the game with a 7-1 surge.
Key to the Trojan victory was a marked improvement in free-throw shooting, from a 5-for-18 (28 percent) showing in their season-opening loss to Chapman to a solid 12-for-17 (71 percent) performance against Rock Creek.
Duerksen led the way, sinking eight of nine attempts. The senior finished the game with a team-high 14 points. Ratzlaff added 12 and Hannah Marsh 9.
Their production on offense was crucial as the Mustangs focused on stopping the Trojans’ top scorer, JuliAnne Chisholm, who managed just five points.
“We kind of adjusted our offense because they were really doubling down on Juli,” Carlson said “As soon she caught the ball, they had two people on her. Amy just stayed at the top (of the lane) and looked for her shot.
“We moved the ball around and got some better shots tonight-maybe they weren’t better shots, but we made some of our outside shots, which makes us feel better.”
The Trojans finished with a shooting percentage of 43 percent (17 of 40) from the floor while the Mustangs sank 41 percent (18 of 44). Rock Creek made nine trips to the free-throw line, making four.
Carlson said her team made noticeable improvements from the Chapman game. “I felt like we were in control of this game, but we still had a bit of nerves,” Carlson said. “In the second half, we calmed down and played well.”
Coming-Hillsboro was to host Wichita Collegiate on Tuesday. Results will appear in this week’s Free Press Extra, on newsstands late Thursday afternoon.
On Friday, the Trojans end pre-Christmas competition with a home game against Ellinwood. Tip-off will be around 6:30 p.m.
