Hillsboro was 10-0 when it lost its first game of the 2016-2017 season. The Hawks’ first loss was to Farmington in the championship of the Bob Sechrest Jr. Christmas Tournament.
After trouncing Crystal City 62-27 Tuesday night in the first round of the 62nd annual Sechrest tournament in the T.J. Foulon Fieldhouse at Park Hills Central, Hillsboro improved to 9-0 this season. The Hawks are the top seed in the 16-team boys field and play Potosi on Thursday in the quarterfinals.
The Hawks didn’t show any rust after not playing a game for a week and being off over the Christmas break. Hillsboro head coach Dan Johnson said he put his undefeated team through a workout before Tuesday’s game to see how they’d respond.
“Anytime you take several days off in row, it always concerns me what kind of shape you’re in,” Johnson said. “But we got them in early (Tuesday) morning and got them going up and down and they looked pretty fresh today.”
Neutralizing Crystal City senior Brady DeGeare is the focus of any of the Hornets’ opponents, and other than a 3-point basket to end the first half, the Hawks didn’t let DeGeare dictate the play offensively.
“Our plan was to establish ourselves defensively and try to keep the ball out of DeGeare’s hands as much as possible,” Johnson said. “I thought we did that until right before halftime.”
With a 30-point-plus lead and running clock in the second half, Johnson flushed out his bench and gave some valuable playing time to his non-starters. Before being relieved, senior forward Gaven Pinkley led the Hawks with a modest 11 points and junior forward Michael Brewer snared 10 rebounds, but the scoring was spread out. Senior reserve Trey Craig made all four shots from the field and finished with 10 points.
“We only have 10 players dressed for this tournament because we have players in a JV tournament at Herculaneum,” Johnson said. “Everybody got a lot of minutes and I thought Trey Craig was real good tonight coming off the bench.”
Potosi pulls away from De Soto in 4th
After losing to Potosi 83-74 on Tuesday in the first round of the Sechrest tournament, De Soto head coach Zeb Hammond sequestered his Dragons in the locker room for a long time.
Hammond emerged from the postgame speech with an unvarnished report after De Soto fell to 6-7.
“I let them know that everything we did tonight was selfish,” Hammond said. “We didn’t play hard defensively and when you let teams pass the ball around and do what they want, you’re not going to win any games. It’s frustrating because we don’t practice like that and we don’t teach that.”
Just two weeks earlier, the Dragons beat the Trojans 70-59 behind the 21 points by senior guard Austin West and 18 points by senior post Aaron Perren. West, junior Clayton Snudden and senior Trevor Johnson all scored 16 points in the rematch. Potosi junior Noah Jacobsen led all scorers with 30 points.
“We beat this team already and we didn’t run our offense at all tonight,” Hammond said. “We made two post entries in the first three quarters. At the end of the game we did that and got some easy baskets.”
The Dragons and Trojans were tied 36-36 at halftime, but the Trojans had a 10-point run in the third quarter and 12-point run in the fourth as they led most of the second half.
Sophomore Corey Gibbs opened the scoring in the fourth with a basket for De Soto. After a field goal by Potosi sophomore Kaleb Coffman, Johnson sank a 3-pointer, West made a basket, then grabbed a defensive rebound on the next Potosi possession, and connected with Johnson with a pass the length of the court. Johnson scored to tie the game 59-59 with 5:38 to play.
The Trojans scored the next 12 points to take a 71-59 lead. Potosi committed just one foul in the third quarter.
Hammond said Johnson is capable of being one of the Dragons’ leading scorers.
“When he takes good shots, he’s one of our better shooters, but when he forces shots, he hasn’t come to that happy medium of what good shots to take,” Hammond said.
Hammond said Jacobsen is one of the better players in the tournament.
“He was a man on a mission tonight and we didn’t have anyone who wanted to step up and compete with him,” Hammond said. “When he wanted to get to the rim, he did. We never rotated over to stop him.”
62nd annual Bob Sechrest Jr. Christmas Tournament
At Park Hills Central, Dec. 26-30
BOYS
Seeds: 1. Hillsboro; 2. North County; 3. Farmington; 4. Park Hills Central; 5. Festus; 6. Perryville; 7. Ste. Genevieve; 8. De Soto; 9. Potosi; 10. Arcadia Valley; 11. South Iron; 12. West County; 13. Viburnum; 14. Fredericktown; 15. Herculaneum; 16. Crystal City.
Dec. 26: Hillsboro 62, Crystal City 27; Potosi 83, De Soto 74; Park Hills Central 92, Viburnum 52; Festus 56, West County 44
Dec. 27: Crystal City vs. De Soto, 1 p.m.; Viburnum vs. West County, 2:30 p.m.; North County vs. Herculaneum, 4 p.m.; Ste. Genevieve vs. Arcadia Valley, 5:30 p.m.; Farmington vs. Fredericktown, 7 p.m.; Perryville vs. South Iron, 8:30 p.m.
Dec. 28: Hillsboro vs. Potosi, 4 p.m.; Park Hills Central vs. Festus, 5:30 p.m.
Dec. 30: Consolation championship, noon; fifth place, 1:30 p.m.; third place 4:30 p.m.; championship, 7:30 p.m.
GIRLS
Seeds: 1. Park Hills Central; 2. South Iron; 3. Steelville; 4. Ste. Genevieve; 5. Arcadia Valley; 6. Potosi; 7. Fredericktown; 8. Bismarck.
Dec. 26: Park Hills Central 88, Bismarck 15; Arcadia Valley 58, Ste. Genevieve 53; South Iron 40, Fredericktown 31; Steelville 53, Potosi 31
Dec. 27: Bismarck vs. Ste. Genevieve; Fredericktown vs. Potosi
Dec. 28: Park Hills Central vs. Arcadia Valley, 1 p.m.; South Iron vs. Steelville, 2:30 p.m.
Dec. 30: Consolation championship, 10:30 a.m.; third place, 3 p.m.; championship, 6 p.m.