The Sterling girls won the showdown of undefeated teams Tuesday night, knocking the Trojans from the unbeaten ranks by a count of 58-50. Trojan fans took some solace in the boys? game, though, where the Trojans recovered their winning form — despite some ice cold three-point shooting — with a 57-44 victory. Both Hillsboro teams are now 8-1 for the season.
?GIRLS — The Trojans made it tough on themselves against the Black Bears, missing their first seven shots of the evening as Sterling took an early 7-0 lead.
Hillsboro?s cool start didn?t change much the rest of the half as the Trojans made only six of 24 shots (25 percent) in the first two quarters. Not surprisingly, they found themselves trailing the Black Bears 26-15 at halftime.
In the third quarter Hillsboro began to hit their shots, but so did Sterling. The Black Bears bumped their lead by another point by the end of period at 41-29.
The odds of overcoming a double-digit lead in one quarter seemed slim, especially after Sterling got off to a 5-2 start in the first two minutes. Trailing 46-31 by that point, Hillsboro began to rally. Two baskets in the paint by Danae Bina and four straight free throws by Addie Lackey cut the lead to 48-39 with 3:25 to go.
But Sterling responded with an 8-0 run to snuff Hillsboro chances of a miracle comeback with a 56-39 lead and 1:39 to play. Hills?boro did make an 11-2 run down the stretch, but the outcome of the game was settled by then.
The Trojan killer on this evening was Sterling?s pint-sized point guard Kylah Comley, who torched the Trojan defense for 27 points by both penetrating the lane and hitting three of four three-points shots.
Lackey recovered from a rough first half of shooting to score 19 points in the second half and 23 for the game. Alex Ratzlaff added 17 and Danae Bina 10. Hillsboro was outrebounded 36-22.
?BOYS — After a fast start in the opening quarter, Hillsboro survived an ugly second quarter on the way to a 13-point victory.
The Trojans weren?t on fire from the field as the game began, but their strong defensive effort forced nine Black Bear turnovers in the first period and gave them enough fast-break points for a 15-6 lead as the quarter ended.
But it got ugly for the next eight minutes. The Trojans made only two of 13 shots and surrendered two baskets off silly turnovers. Fortunately, their defense continued to create enough havoc to limit the Black Bears to 4-for-11 shooting, Hillsboro led 20-14 at halftime. Brett Weinbren?ner was the one bright spot on offense, leading the team at the break with 10 points.
Then the Black Bears came out of the break like their hibernation had been interrupted. A 7-2 spurt quickly cut Hillsboro?s lead to a single point at 22-21. But when Micah Allen grabbed a rebound and dribbled coast-to-coast for a layup, the Trojans found some spark. After a Sterling basket, Christian Ratzlaff hit back-to-back three-pointers, Brown added a basket in the lane and Evan Ollenburger stole the ball and scored — all in less than a minute. Suddenly, Hillsboro led 34-23 with 3:59 left in the period. The Trojans still led by eight at the end of the quarter, 41-33.
To their credit, the Trojans took charge of the fourth quarter and cruised to the 13-point win.
Weinbrenner led all scorers with 17 points. After a slow start, Ratzlaff finished with 13 points. Making a huge contribution was Jesse Brown, who played perhaps his best game of the season. The senior scored nine points, pulled down seven rebounds and for the most part offset Sterling?s height and girth advantage with his defensive athleticism around the basket.
Sterling, led by 15 points from Trey Bagby, dropped to 2-7 for the season.
