HHS girls win Moundridge title; Trojan boys fall short

HHSgbMoundMoundSteph849  HHSgbMoundMoundBina854  HHSgbMoundPlaque858  The Hillsboro and Mound?ridge basketball teams split the championship plaques Friday at the Moundridge Preseason Tournament. The HHS girls prevailed in a defensive battle against the Wildcats, 35-23, while the Trojan boys dropped a 54-49 decision in the nightcap.

GIRLS — It?s easier to limit an opponent?s points when that team employs a deliberate offensive style. But ultimately, the Trojans? victory reinforced the adage that defense truly does win championships.

The Trojans scored only 12 points in the first half, but that was more than enough as they allowed Moundridge only one point — a free throw by Renae Stucky with 42 seconds left until halftime. Stephanie Sanders scored four of Hillsboro?s seven points in the first quarter, and Callie Serene scored all five points for HHS in the second quarter. Moundridge, meanwhile, missed all 15 of its field goal attempts, thanks in large part to Hillsboro harassing defense.

When Tiffany Fisher finally scored the home team?s first field goal 22 seconds into the third quarter, the scoring pace picked up from there for both squads. Four points by both Tena Loewen and Addie Lackey and a three-point play by Danae Bina helped HHS to a 23-10 lead after three quarters.

Hillsboro led by as much as 19 points when Courtney Weber drained a three-pointer with 2:04 left in the game, but the Wildcats scored the final seven points to cut the final margin to 12.

Lackey led Hillsboro with 10 points as the Trojans shot just under 50 percent (15-31) from the field. Moundridge finished with 19 percent success (7-36).

With the win, Hillsboro improved to 3-0 for the season while Moundridge dropped to 1-2 for the tournament and 2-2 overall.

BOYS — A good defensive effort by Hillsboro simply wasn?t enough to prevent Moundridge point machine Trey Unrau from propelling his team to the tournament title.

The Wildcat senior poured in 27 points despite commendable efforts by sophomore Evan Ollen?burger and senior Luke Moore — both of whom fouled out before the game was over in an effort to keep Unrau in check.

Moundridge led 9-4 after one quarter and 25-18 at halftime as the Trojans struggled to find some rhythm on offense. Hills?boro made eight of its 27 shots through the first two quarters while Moundridge hit seven of 19, with Unrau racking up 15 points by the break.

The Trojans pieced together a slow 9-0 run to start the third quarter and grabbed a 27-25 lead when Shaq Thiessen capped the run with a three-point shot from the corner with 3:07 left in the period.

But Moundridge rallied to reclaim a 33-30 lead by the end of the quarter. The Wildcats then got baskets by Alex Otte and Daniel Ratzlaff to push the lead to seven in the first minute of the final period, and more or less maintained that margin to the end.

Jesse Allen and Christian Ratzlaff each scored 12 to pace the Trojans, who fell to 2-1 for the tournament and the season. Moundridge remains undefeated at 4-0.

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