Trojans turn up the heat vs. Kingman

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The Hillsboro boys put the pedal to the metal on both ends of the court Friday to secure a 69-52 victory at Kingman in a fast-tempo game that was more lopsided than the score might indicate.

?That?s the sloppiest we?ve been all year on the offensive end,? coach Darrel Knoll said afterward. ?There was fast break after fast break that we didn?t finish. Those are plays we normally make. I think, more than anything, that kept this game where it was.

?Other than that, I was extremely pleased with our effort. We played hard.?

Hillsboro made only one of its first six shots to start the game, but didn?t allow a King?man basket until the 5:15 mark of the first period. With seven players contributing points, Hillsboro led, 15-8, at the first break.

The Trojans led, 32-21, at halftime, then hit three three-pointers in the first three minutes of the third quarter to push the margin to 43-27.

Hills?boro maintained that margin at the end of the quarter, 52-38. When Chris?tian Ratzlaff completed a traditional three-point play with 2:49 left in the game, HHS enjoyed its largest lead at 67-48.

Hillsboro harassed the Eagle shooters on defense all game long and pushed the ball effectively up the court on offense.

?We ran the court hard,? Knoll said. ?I was happy to see that. The last couple of games I didn?t think we ran as hard as we could or should. Maybe I pushed them a little bit hard and that cost us some turnovers. But that?s the only way you get better.?

Shaq Thiessen led HHS with 18 points while Ratzlaff, Brett Weinbrenner and Jesse Allen each added 11 as the Trojans improved to 15-4 for the year and 6-2 in the Central Kansas League. King?man dropped to 0-8 and 1-18.

?We got a lot of good minutes out of a lot of people, so I was pleased with the effort,? Knoll said. ?And it?s a win on the road.?

Halstead?Hillsboro built an early lead then fought tooth and nail to maintain it en route to a 54-46 road victory last Tuesday.

Christian Ratzlaff scored eight points in the first 2:30 of the game to help the Trojans to a 10-3 cushion.

From that point, momentum ebbed and flowed. Every time Hillsboro appeared poised to deliver a knock-out punch, the Dragons would rally. Every time the home team pulled close, the Trojans would counter-punch.

Hillsboro led 16-11 after one quarter, then pushed the lead to 19-11. But a 7-0 run drew the Dragons as close as 19-18 with 4:45 left in the half.

The Trojans? Shaq Thiessen took over, hitting a three-pointer, then stealing the ball and scoring?all within 16 seconds. Brett Wein?brenner then hit a 15-footer, Evan Ollenburger followed with a traditional three-point play and Jesse Allen scored in the paint. Suddenly, Hills?boro was back in front, 31-20, with 2:49 left in the half.

Leading 32-22 at halftime, the Trojans pushed the lead to 37-24 and still led by 12 as the quarter ended, 43-31.

Each team managed only two points through the first half of the final period. Then, a free throw by Allen followed by a steal and basket by Thiessen gave Hillsboro its biggest lead of the night, 48-33.

But the Dragons scored the next 10 points, aided by four consecutive turnovers by Hillsboro.

Thiessen stepped up again, scoring on a fast-break basket with 22 seconds left, then icing the outcome by hitting two free throws with eight seconds to go.

Thiessen led the Trojans with 21 points and six steals. Ratzlaff added 12 points and a team-high five rebounds.

?It was a physical game,? coach Darrel Knoll said. ?We got a little sloppy offensively at times, but we played really hard defensively all night. I was very pleased with the effort.?

The loss dropped Halstead to 3-4 in the Central Kansas League and 6-12 for the season.

Coming?Hillsboro was scheduled to end the regular season Tuesday with a home game against Haven (8-10, 4-4).

The Trojans will begin sub-state play next week with a first-round game at home. Pairings and seedings will be announced this week. Check hillsborofreepress.com for the update.

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