Trojans advance to state
After missing two foul shots at the end of the first OT, Hillsboro seals the victory
in second extra period
BY RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
Hillsboro Trojan senior boys' basketball player Adam Woods held his own in the final game of the Lyons' sub-state against one of the state's top scorers, Hoisington's Zach Baird.
Lugging around a 22.4 points per game average, which ranks second in 3A, Baird was held to a game-high 17 points by Woods and the Trojans' defense.
Baird fouled out in the first overtime as the Trojans outlasted the Cardinals in a double-overtime thriller, 64-55.
With the victory, Hillsboro swiped the final ticket to Wednesday's boys Class 3A state tournament held at the Hutchinson Community College Sports Arena.
Trojan coach Darrell Knoll is making his eighth trip to Hutchinson, where he has finished no lower than third.
Woods helped reserve the Trojans' ticket to the state tournament with 5.3 seconds left in the second overtime, draining a pair of free throws to finish with 14 points.
A big part of the reason the Trojans are boasting a 20-3 record can be attributed to pulling through at the free throw line.
Even at 17 for 22 from the line Monday, the last two Hillsboro games still won't be included as clutch performances at the line.
The Trojans had the chance to close the deal after the first overtime.
Going one for four from the foul line in the final 1:28 of the first overtime prolonged the game.
It took seven for eight from the line in the second overtime for the Trojans to bring the Cardinals in for a crash landing.
"The last two games we've played, we've struggled down the stretch," Knoll said. "Normally, we're pretty good from the line in the last quarter.
"Hopefully, we'll get that healed up by the state tournament. We need to get back on track with our free throws."
Any coach that preaches defense would've been appalled at Monday's first quarter.
Hillsboro opened the game a perfect 6 for 6 from the field while Hoisington made 4 of 6.
Seemingly a ritual this year of holding for the last shot of a quarter, Andy Brubacher canned one of his four triples at the buzzer to give the Trojans a 17-16 lead after one.
Brubacher came up huge Monday, scoring a team high 16 points despite a smothering, physical Cardinal defense. As did Tyler Weinbrenner, who finished in double figures with 11.
Both teams' defenses seemed more alert in the second quarter with Hillsboro forcing eight Cardinal turnovers, which led to 10 points.
The ball was slippery for the Trojans too, who committed two less turnovers which kept Hoisington in the game.
Baird scored eight of his 17 in the second quarter with six coming at the line as results of Trojan miscues.
Woods sent Hillsboro in at intermission up 29-27 with another buzzer-beater.
Brubacher's second three pushed Hillsboro's lead to 32-27 nearly :40 seconds into the second half.
Puzzled by the Cardinals' 2-3 zone defense, the Trojans then looked out of synch for the rest of regulation.
"I thought we were out of rhythm offensively the last quarter and a half," said Knoll. "Fortunately, we hit enough and ran enough clock that we had a chance to win in regulation."
That was thwarted as an amazing triple by Joey Cotten sent the game to overtime tied at 49.
Baird scored all six of the Cardinals' points in the first overtime before fouling out with 3.2 seconds left.
"He's a good player," Woods said of Baird. "He's more physical than Gattis, he wants to scrap more. That really helped us when he fouled out."
With Baird fouled out, so seemed the Cardinals' gas.
Hillsboro pulled away, outscoring Hoisington 9-0, in the final overtime with Woods four from the line and Ross Duerksen hitting 3 for 4.
"We played as hard as we normally do," Knoll said. "I think we wore them (Hoisington) down a little bit because they have fewer guys to play than we do. They played really hard and competed well."
Results
HILLSBORO 64, HOISINGTON 55
Hills — 16 11 10 12 6 9 55
Hois — 17 12 10 10 6 0 64
Hoisington — Brad Boor 15, Mark Cooper 4, Baird 17, Adam Rice 5, Cotten 14, Totals 20-40 5-11 10-14 55.
Hillsboro — Brubacher 16, Weinbrenner 11, Layne Frick 8, Duerksen 8, Steve Chisholm 2, Tyler Peachey 5, Woods 14, Totals 21-51 5-16 17-22 64.
