Lady Trojans open 2008 with win years ago
By RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
It's not how you start, it's how you finish.
For the Hillsboro High School Lady Trojans basketball team, protecting a lead hasn't been its strong point.
Hillsboro's second and fourth quarters have proved to be fatal during the season with turnovers playing a huge culprit in disintegrating leads.
Opening the new year Friday with a two-hour drive to Hoisington, the Lady Trojans (3-3) not only were able to grab the early lead, they were able to build on it, winning their second straight game with a 40-31 victory against the Lady Cardinals.
Dakota Kaufman scored a game-high 15 points while nabbing a game-best eight rebounds, and Amanda Faber furnished 13 more points to help Hillsboro pass the stiff road test against the more experienced Cardinals.
The Trojans jumped out to a 10-8 lead and were able to maintain it with Kaufman helping them push the deficit to 19-13 by halftime.
Hillsboro's inability to take care of the ball kept it from grounding the Cardinals entirely, with the Trojans and Cardinals combining for 45 mistakes.
But the Trojans were able to stay at least two possessions ahead of Hoisington, resorting to their free-throw shooting in the fourth quarter to grind out the victory.
The Trojans were 15-23 from the foul line with Faber a near-perfect 7-8.
Hillsboro shot 46 percent overall with 50 percent coming from the floor.
Hoisington also was hampered by its inability to get a rebound with Hillsboro dominating the boards, 26-15, despite allowing the Cardinals to shoot 50 percent.
Hillsboro was in action Monday night in the Dec. 14 make-up game at Nickerson that was wiped out by bad weather.
The Trojans travel Friday to Ellinwood for a 6 p.m. tip-off against the Lady Eagles.
