Trojans finish regular season with wins
Jost's 16 points lead Trojans past Vikings
BY RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
The three-week streak of Tuesday misfortunes is over for the Trojan boys' basketball team.
Junior Dustin Jost exorcised the curse Tuesday night in the Trojans' regular season finale at home against upset-minded Smoky Valley.
Jost scored a career-high 16 points to help lead Hillsboro to a come-from behind victory over the Vikings, 55-45.
Hillsboro was in deep trouble up until a 26-11 fourth quarter finished off the Vikings.
The Trojans stayed in pursuit before Layne Frick's basket finally got them over the hill, 38-37, with 4:45 left in the game.
Playing in his final home game as a Trojan, Frick did 10 points worth of damage to Smoky Valley, as did junior Andy Brubacher.
As part of an 11-0 run by Hillsboro, Jost scored nine of his 16 in the fourth quarter, with six points coming off fastbreaks.
Unlike their first meeting with the Vikings back on Jan. 19 in the championship game of the Trojan Classic, the foul line was an enemy to the Trojans the second time around.
The Trojans struggled from the line early on, with Frick the only player to be perfect at the line from a two-shot foul through three quarters.
But Hillsboro pulled through at the line in crunch time, with Jost and Brubacher combining for 7 of 8 in the closing 1:04.
Also playing their final home game were Adam Woods, Pete Richert, Ross Duerksen, Jon Regier and Adam Driggers.
Trojans down Elllinwood
With sub-state beginning Monday at Lyons for the Trojan boys' basketball team, the sand in the hourglass is running out on putting together a full 32 minutes.
Coach Darrell Knoll can only hope that it doesn't run out a sub-state.
For the first half of Friday's game against the visiting Ellinwood Eagles, Hillsboro looked like a team primed for the postseason.
The Trojans got good ball movement and pressure, they executed on offense and guarded the ball.
But the second half was another story.
After bolting out of the gate in the first half racing to a 40-20 lead, Hillsboro got outplayed in every aspect for the final 16 minutes.
Luckily for the Trojans, their first half was enough to thwart the Eagles' 39-27 furious second half.
Hillsboro survived, 67-59, to improve to 16-3 overall and 9-3 in the MCAA.
"We played really a brilliant half of basketball," Head Coach Darrell Knoll said of the first half. "We executed everything. Defensively, we had good ball pressure and good help. The second half, we didn't do a lot of those things."
Exactly.
The Trojans did everything right in the first half, jumping out to a quick 7-0 lead in the first 1:06 of the game.
They extended their lead to 17-4 with a 9-0 run.
Through the game's first 2:30, the Trojans shot a lights-out six for six from the field with all four of their threes coming in the first quarter.
Ellinwood cooled the Trojans off late in the first quarter, holding them to one for six in the last 5:30 to pull to 20-12.
The quick-paced first half ended on a 5-0 Trojan run that left the Eagles doubled up at intermission, 40-20.
The Trojans came out a different squad in the second half, playing like a team that spent halftime in the icehouse.
Ellinwood duplicated Hillsboro's 7-0 run to start the game in the third quarter, and just like that, the Trojans' lead had diminished to 40-27 not even 1:30 into the second half.
The Trojans' ball movement sputtered, cooling their 52 percent from the field in the first half to 43 in the third quarter from 4 of 15 on the floor.
Hillsboro's perimeter defense offered Ellinwood's Troy Reade four looks at threes, and he obliged by scoring 12 of his team-high 17 points from downtown in the second half.
Unlike they did in the first half, the Trojans backed off in the post in the second.
This freed up 6-foot-5 Nathan Robinson, who had nine of his 13 points in the second half.
And after three quarters, Ellinwood had climbed back in the game, trailing 49-41.
"I think a lot of it (Ellinwood's surge) was due to the fact that we failed to convert our offense," Knoll said. "That gave them momentum. It wasn't that we took such bad shots, it was just two-pass and shot and we didn't have any movement. We didn't help ourselves offensively."
Steve Chisholm has made significant contributions throughout the season, not so much in scoring. On Friday night, he had a break-out game, scoring a season-high 10 points with four coming in the second quarter.
Big plays by Chisholm and Ross Duerksen helped the Trojans maintain their lead, combining for 12 of Hillsboro's 18 fourth quarter points.
With the Eagles still swooping down on the Trojans' lead, 61-54, Duerksen came up big at the free throw line in the closing 1:33, shooting a perfect 6 for 6.
"The bottom line is that we've got to be able to play good hard-nosed basketball for more than 16 or 20 minutes," Knoll said "We've got to play 32, or we won't have a chance in postseason."
Hillsboro 67, Ellinwood 59
Ellinwood — 12 8 21 18 59
Hillsboro — 20 20 9 18 67
Ellinwood — David Waite 8, Cody Engle 6, Andy Wesner 8, Drew Conwell 2, Read 17, Kohl Kramp 3, Ryan Isern 2, Robinson 13, Totals 18-35 5-14 8-14 59.
Hillsboro — Brubacher 5, Weinbrenner 19, Frick 7, Dustin Jost 4, Duerksen 6, Chisholm 10, Tyler Peachey 2, Adam Woods 6, Shawn Hughbanks 8, Totals 21037 4-17 13-16.
