Maybe driving up in single-digit temperatures was to blame, but both Hillsboro basketball teams got off to chilly shooting starts in their games at Lyons Tuesday night. The Trojans girls finally warmed up late in the quarter and finished with a 19-point victory, 53-34, while the boys never did thaw out, losing to the home team, 47-34.
GIRLS? GAME
Hillsboro, who came in with a 7-1 record, simply could not shake the 1-7 Lions for most of the contest. A basket by Hillsboro?s Tena Loewen with 2:21 left in the first quarter, followed by a score by Courtney Weber 1:15 later was enough to bump Hillsboro into the lead, 9-7, by the end of the first quarter. By halftime, the margin was almost the same, with the Trojans on top, 19-16.
Lyons was still within two points at 26-24 with 2:17 left in the third quarter when Weber scored another basket and Krista Reimer followed with unanswered back-to-back-to-back buckets in a span of less than a minute, vaulting HHS into a 35-24 advantage as the quarter ended.
Hillsboro maintained that general spread into the final two minutes of the game, when a pair of free throws by Loewen ignited a 12-4 burst down the home stretch and the Trojans were able to nail down a respectable margin between 8-1 and 1-8 teams.
Allie Faul led Hillsboro with 15 points with Loewen and Reimer finishing with 11 apiece. As team, Hillsboro shot a chilly 29 percent in the first half (9-31) but warmed up enough in the second half to finish at 36 percent (20-56). Lyons shot 43 percent from the floor for the game, but put up 19 fewer shots thanks to 31 turnovers.
BOYS? GAME
Coming off their best offensive performance of the season against Pratt on Friday, the Trojan boys slid back into their cold-shooting ways against the Lions.
By halftime, HHS?had managed only nine points on 3-for-20 shooting (15 percent). But the Trojans kept themselves in contention with a defensive effort that limited the home team to 17 points.
Hillsboro seemed to have found the heater switch in the early minutes of the third quarter. Moving to a trapping defense that forced Lyons into one missed shot and three consecutive turnovers, the Trojans cashed in with a 3-pointer by Jarod Hamm, a free throw by Ben Bebermeyer and a 3-pointer by Brett Weinbrenner, who had missed all four of his shots in the first half. The surge pulled HHS to within 19-16 with 5:57 to play.
But the Trojans didn?t score again until Luke Moore banked in a shot from 8 feet out with 50 seconds left in the period. By then the Lions? 6-foot-4 Ryan McClure had fueled a Lyons run with six points that put his team ahead, 29-18, at the final break.
Hillsboro had one last surge at the start of the fourth quarter as Bebermeyer scored twice and Tyrell Thiessen once to close the lead to 31-24 with 6:27 to go. For whatever reason, the Trojans decided it was time to unleash the long-range artillery. Their next five shots all came from behind the arc — and all missed the mark.
Meanwhile, Lyons pushed the lead back to 10 points with just under five minutes to go. Hillsboro didn?t make another field goal until Thiessen scored in the paint with 1:17 left. The score was beyond reach at that point, 47-32.
For the game, Hillsboro finished with 25 percent shooting success (10-for-40) from the floor while Lyons enjoyed 44 percent (17-39). Bebermeyer was the only Trojan to break double digits, reaching 10 points. Lyons? McClure led all scorers with 17 and Brenton Drake added 11.
The loss drops Hillsboro to 4-5 while Lyons improves to 2-8.
