Trojans open year fresh with road win
Marsh scores
career-high 21
After scoring a career-high 21 points from a quintet of triples, Caleb Marsh opened 2004 with an offensive eruption to add to the Trojan arsenal.
The Trojans opened the new year Jan. 2 in Salina, beating the winless 5A Central Mustangs easily, 67-54.
Fourth-ranked Hillsboro lifts its record to 4-1 on the year with the win.
Ice-cold shooting kept Hillsboro behind 13-11 after the first quarter even with Daniel Deckert's buzzer-beater.
Deckert scored a season-high 17 points to go along with seven rebounds.
Hillsboro used a 22-10 second quarter to sprint to a 33-23 lead by half-time after Marsh canned a trio of threes as part of 12 unanswered Trojan points.
Hillsboro heated up from behind the arc the second quarter after the trio of Marsh, Aaron Yoder, and Tyler Peachey combined to drain five.
For the game, the Trojans burned Central with 50 percent from long range and 44 percent overall.
Peachey joined Marsh and Deckert as the only other Trojan in double figures with 13 points and team-highs of eight rebounds and five assists.
Derek Hamm and Deckert each scored four points in helping Hillsboro's lead swell to 45-29 in the opening minutes of the second half.
The Mustangs, hampered by 20 turnovers, were not able to cut the lead to single digits.
Central shot 54 percent from the floor, but a swarming Hillsboro perimeter defense limited the Mustangs to a cool two-for-seven from three.
Marsh's career-night ended on six-for-eight from the floor propelled by five-for-six outside and a team-high four steals.
The Trojans travel Friday to Lyons for an 8 p.m. meeting with the Lions. Hillsboro hosts Sterling Jan. 13.
