Hillsboro sweeps Marion in pre-holidays finale

HHSgbMarTenaRebound062  HHSgbMarDanae067  HHSgbMarTenaWhitney063  Hillsboro opened its home schedule and finished its pre-holiday schedule with a pair of wins over Marion Tuesday night in Brown Gymnasium. The undefeated Trojan girls rolled over the winless Warriors, 54-29, while the Hillsboro boys overcame a 29-point scoring exhibition by Marion?s Jordan Hett to claim a 67-54 victory.

GIRLS — Both teams struggled for points during the first half of the opening quarter, but when Callie Serene drained a three-point shot with 4:15 to go, she ignited a 14-2 run that carried HHS to a comfortable 15-4 lead at the first break. Maci Schlehuber hit a three-pointer 45 seconds after Serene?s, then Serene hit her second three of the quarter with 1:12 left.

If Marion was hoping to regroup in the second quarter, those hopes were shattered when the Trojans scored seven unanswered points in the first 2:20 of the period — including Serene?s third three — en route to a 13-2 scoring run leading to halftime. The senior?s 11 points led all scorers at the intermission.

Hillsboro pushed its 28-6 halftime lead to 42-11 by the end of the third quarter, getting a boost from Krista Reimer, who scored six points in a span of 3:15 midway through the period.

With a 31-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, the rest of the game was played with a running clock.

For all of the scoring, key to Hillsboro?s domination was its defense. Tena Loewen, who led the Trojans with 12 points, held Marion?s Whitney Gordon to no field goals through three quarters. Stepping up against the Trojan reserves in the final period, Gordon scored seven of her team-high eight points.

As a team, Hillsboro shot a mediocre 34 percent from field (21-61), but limited Marion to 27 percent (10-37) on 24 fewer shots.

The Trojans, ranked No. 2 in Class 3A, go into the break with a 6-0 record while Marion drops to 0-5.

BOYS — Breaking their recent trend of starting slowly and playing from behind, Hillsboro built a 20-10 lead after one quarter and spent the rest of the evening battling to keep Marion at arms? length.

Brett Weinbrenner hit two three-pointers and scored eight points to fuel the Trojans? strong start. Marion?s Jordan Hett completed an old-fashioned three-point play to score the very first points of the game, but the Trojans shut him down the rest of the quarter.

But Hett was not going to be denied. He stepped up his game in the second period for 10 points, and when he drained a three at the 2:29 mark, Marion was within five at 28-23. Christian Ratzlaff responded with a three for Hillsboro with 1:44 to go and, after a Warrior turnover, Luke Moore came off the bench to drain another three to help HHS build its lead back to nine at the break, 34-25.

Marion scored the first four points of the third period, but Hillsboro launched a 10-4 surge over the next four minutes to lead again by 12, 46-34, on the way to a 50-38 margin at the final break.

The two teams traded baskets in the fourth quarter until a score in the lane by Wiley Lundy and a three by Jacob Harper got Marion to within nine points. Wiebe responded with a basket in the lane on a nice feed from Weinbrenner, but Hett banked in a three with 2:35 to make the score 59-52. Hillsboro stepped up with two free throws apiece from Wiebe and Shaq Thiessen, followed by a basket by Ratzlaff to stymie the comeback effort down the home stretch.

Weinbrenner led HHS with 17 points and Wiebe finished with 12 as the Trojans shot 51 percent from the field (25-49) and a season-best 59 percent (5-9) from behind the arc. Harper added 16 points to Hett?s 29 as the Warriors shot a better percentage than Hillsboro at nearly 54 percent (21-39) but managed 10 fewer shots.

With the win, the Trojans enter the break with a 4-2 record while Marion slips to 2-3.

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