Staff writer
The margin of victory for the Hillsboro girls’ basketball team was 12 points, 35-23, but that was not indicative of their dominance over Moundridge on Friday.
Moundridge may have scored 23 points, but they were hard earned. The Trojans only allowed Moundridge a single point in the first half.
The Wildcats were not slouches. They won the 2A state tournament last season and brought back many of those players. Sniper MacKenzie Suderman was especially deadly from beyond the arc.
When I watched games at the Marion Classic Tournament this past weekend, I wondered how many points those teams would have scored against Hillsboro. With the Peabody and Eureka matchup, I’m not sure if either team would have reached double digits.
This type of defensive performance is special. Before the season, the team realized it was capable of this. Coach Nathan Hiebert knew the team could lock up opponents when he told me Hillsboro would win a state championship.
Great defensive teams usually get nicknames. Remember, the Bad Boy Pistons, Monsters of the Midway, the Steel Curtain, and Purple People Eaters?
In short the Trojans deserve a nickname: I give you Bombshell Blitzkrieg.
Of the Trojans top eight players, their main rotation, seven of them feature blonde hair, natural or not (sorry Krista Reimer).
They play a swarming, relentless, attacking brand of defense. Blitzkrieg is almost unfair to opposing teams. A Blitzkrieg is defined a short violent attack, but the Trojans play tenacious defense all game long.
I also thought of Goldie Blocks (they don’t really block shots), Gold Crush (kind of stolen from 70s Denver Broncos), and Platinum Dom (If I was Jay-Z I could make that rhyme with blonde); none of those are as good.