Lady Trojans nip defending state champions
By RYAN RICHTER
Sports Writer
With the score tied and less than 10 seconds left in the game at Wichita Collegiate Dec. 19, JuliAnne Chisholm found a wide-open Tina Frick under the basket for the winning bucket, to lift the Hillsboro Lady Trojans (5-1) to a thrilling, 43-41, victory over the defending 3A state champion Spartans (3-3).
It was the first big test for the Trojans under new head coach Dale Honeck, and the first indication that the season might turn out fine and dandy.
After the holiday break, the Lady Trojans return to action Jan. 7 at home against Hoisington.
Honeck was thrilled, but not surprised, by the big win. The former college coach has been teaching his fast-paced and aggressive brand of basketball to these players since camp this past summer.
The concepts are sinking in.
"We've been playing good for three games now," said an exhausted but happy Honeck. "I honestly thought this was the way it was going to end up."
Even after a sluggish start against Collegiate, the Trojans still found themselves with a 9-7 lead after one quarter.
In the second quarter, Spartan Gena Camarena got hot, burying three baskets from outside to give the Spartans a 19-16 halftime lead.
Camarena scored a team-high 19 points, including five of the Spartans' nine three-pointers.
Chisholm supplied all seven of Hillsboro's second-quarter points on her way to scoring a game-high 23.
In the third quarter, Dakota Kaufman scored with under 5:00 left to regain the lead for Hillsboro, 23-22. The Trojans were helped by 12 Collegiate turnovers in the second half.
There were four lead changes and two ties in the last 11:55 of the contest.
Another Kaufman basket with under 3:00 left in the third quarter gave Hillsboro its largest lead of the game, 28-24. But the Spartans scored five straight points to reclaim the lead to start the fourth quarter, 29-28.
As it turned out, Chisholm's basket with under 4:00 to go put the Trojans ahead to stay, but even so, the drama didn't stop. A Collegiate free throw knotted it up at 41 with just over 1:00 left.
Hillsboro ran a minute off the clock to set up the go-ahead basket for Frick. With 3.5 seconds to go, Camarena's shot from half-court bounced off the rim, and the Trojans won.
"We didn't have a good first half," said Honeck. "We made some simple changes, and that was about as good a fourth quarter as we could expect out of a bunch of high school girls."
