The Hillsboro basketball teams opened their new season against the preseason No. 1 picks in Class 3A, Wichita Collegiate, and the Spartans lived up to their high regard with a couple of comfortable wins at Brown Gymnasium in Hillsboro.
In the girls? contest, the Trojans competed pretty well on the defense end, but struggled to score against the persistent pressure of Collegiate. The visitors led 12-2 after one quarter and 22-8 at the half.
Led by the scoring of Ashia Woods, who finished with 29 points, the Spartans pushed the lead to 37-17 through three quarters and then coasted to the win.
Dakota Kaufman scored 16 for Hillsboro with no other Trojan managing more than two points.
As dominant as the Collegiate girls were in the first game, the Collegiate boys raised the ante in the second game, claiming a 60-37 victory in a game that wasn?t as close as the score might indicate.
The Spartans jumped to an 8-0 lead before the Trojans found a way to score against the Collegiate pressure. After one quarter, the margin was 18-7.
Hillsboro managed only two baskets in the second quarter as the Spartans pushed the spread to 37-14. By the end of three quarters, Collegiate was up by 31 points at 54-23, prompting the continuous clock rule through the final period.
Clay Shewey scored 10 of his team-high 14 points in the final period. Nobody else broke double-digits for the Trojans.
