Lady Trojans are state-bound
By RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
Going to the Class 3-A State basketball tournament at the Hutchinson Sports Arena used be old hat for Hillsboro Trojan basketball fans.
And now, after four years, the Lady Trojans were headed back to their old "home court" Wednesday, after drilling the Hesston Lady Swathers Saturday, 55-35, in the title game of the Halstead sub-state tournament.
The fourth-seeded Trojans (20-3) were set to face the fifth-seeded Garden Plain Lady Owls (18-5). The Owls demolished the defending 3A state champ Wichita Collegiate, 64-46 in the Garden Plain title game.
A victory over the Owls would be a great birthday present for Trojan coach and high school principal Dale Honeck, who turns 61 Thursday.
Prior to the season's opening tip-off, Honeck and his team wanted to win one tournament; get a trophy. In his first year at the Hillsboro helm and not sure of what to expect from a young team, it felt like a tough, but reasonable goal.
The Trojans twice came close, falling in the title games of the Cheney Invitational to start the season against Clearwater, and then to Riley County in the mid-season Trojan Invitational.
But when the stakes were highest Saturday against the rival Hesston Swathers, who'd ruined the Trojans' perfect MCAA season, Hillsboro finally got its prized trophy and ticket to the 3A tournament.
Happy Birthday, Honeck!
"We thought we could run through undefeated in the conference, we didn't do that," Honeck said. "Our second goal was to win the conference, we ended up in a tie with Hesston, and one was to get a trophy for first place. We didn't do it at Cheney, we didn't do it at our tournament, but we did it here."
This time, there was no denying the senior trio of JuliAnne Chisholm, Tina Frick, and Lora Andrews.
The three combined to rip Hesston for 37 points. Chisholm had a game-high 16 points and eight rebounds, including 12 points in the first half as Hillsboro hit 47 percent of its shots.
Hesston tied the game at 2-2 with 2:30 gone in the first quarter, but that was the last time the score would be tied, or even closer than four points.
Andrews fueled a 12-0 run as the Trojans built a 14-2 lead.
Hesston could've stuck right in the game had it been able to hit its free throws with Hillsboro putting the Swathers at the line 23 times.
Other than being enough times to get Honeck frustrated, it didn't hurt much with Hesston shooting an abysmal 8-for-23 from the line and 38 percent from the field.
The Swathers helped Hillsboro, more, giving up a rash of turnovers which led to 22 points for the Trojans.
Hesston whittled the lead to 14-10 before Hillsboro doubled the Swathers over in scoring, 16-8 the remainder of the second quarter to stretch the margin to 30-18 by halftime.
Of the Trojans' 30 points, half came courtesy of Swather blunders with Hillsboro's defense forcing 13 turnovers.
Pending a gigantic meltdown, it became pretty clear the Trojans were on their way the third quarter, despite Hesston scoring on its first two possessions of the second half to pull to 30-21.
Those were the only points the Swathers could get to fall the next nine minutes while Hillsboro blew the game open with Amy Neufeld sinking a basket just before the buzzer to make it a 42-21 game.
In a desperate attempt to catch up, the Swathers started throwing up threes, making just one-of-eight the second half and just three for the game.
With the Trojans shooting 50 percent the second half, Samantha Heinrichs buried a three right before the buzzer to seal the game at 55-35.
"I was figuring it would be last-second plays, hitting a free throw in the end," a shocked Honeck said. "Our defense did it, that's where the difference was. We had 55 points, which is more than our average, but I never felt good about the offense the whole night.
"We've worked so hard for this. I don't care how pretty it was, I don't care if it was the ugliest game we've ever seen, we won by 20 and we're going to state."
