It was a classic basketball matchup of size against speed when the Northwest and Windsor boys met Jan. 26 for the championship of the 10th Bruce Thomas Tournament at Herculaneum.
With 6-6 hardwood redwoods Alex Drexler and Stefan Higgins stalking both ends of the court, the Lions (9-7) are tough to shoot over and rebound against, so the smaller Owls (11-5) had to get creative on offense.
Playing at a tempo his own teammates could barely keep up with, Windsor junior Noah Barnes was a whirling dervish, catching an occasional elbow when he’d rush the paint on the dribble.
“I’m always the smallest guy, but I feel like I hold my own,” said Barnes after lighting up Northwest for 16 of his 26 points in the second half of Windsor’s pull-away 67-49 victory.
The Lions led 12-11 after the first quarter and the game was tied at 18 in the second, but Windsor’s multi-pronged offense kept stabbing at Northwest’s interior, opening up the outside to take the lead. By the time Barnes sank a 3-point basket at the buzzer to end the third quarter and drilled another to start the fourth, the Owls led 55-39. He scored 68 points in the Owls’ three tournament wins – including blowouts of host Herky (91-38) and St. Pius X (71-30) – and was an easy choice as the MVP.
“He took the game over for us there,” Windsor head coach Brian Gilbert said. “As soon as he hit that shot to end the third quarter, it was very clear it was his game. He’s going to have to keep earning those great looks. He can carry that load on his shoulders. He’s a tough competitor who never shies away from that big moment.”
With the tournament run, Windsor has won six games in a row. And the Owls beat the Lions without senior starter A.J. Patrick, who was in Tampa for a football showcase.
“Northwest has a lot of big guys and we had to go earn it on every possession,” Gilbert said. “We knew we had to throw all 10 guys at (Drexler and Higgins), who are big and strong and know what they’re doing.
“We played to their speed and got stuck in a half-court game in the first quarter and played to their strength. As soon as we got into our transition game and tired some of those bigs out, it went in our favor.”
Not slow afoot himself, Higgins was in the middle of the action at both ends as Northwest grabbed the early lead. He made five free throws in the first quarter and his scoring and rebounding intensified from there as he led the Lions with 23 points.
“If he has a good attitude and positive mentality, he’s a monster,” Northwest head coach Drew Moore said.
“We battled. We’re finally finding our identity on defense so we can guard a lot of people. And we showed we can guard them. The first half was a true battle. But they’ve got some good players. When you’ve got guards who can handle it like that – I thought (Barnes) took over in the second half. We threw everything at him.”
With four Owls averaging double figures in scoring, Barnes’ scoring spree in the tournament boosted his season average to 19 points per game. Junior Layton Hollis (14.1), Patrick (11.9) and senior Brenton Shirk (10.5) are all capable of pouring in 20-plus points.
“I trust the work that I put in,” Barnes said. “My teammates trust me to take the big shots. (We had) too many turnovers tonight, but we got the win and that’s all that matters.”
Hollis drained a 3-point basket with 2:57 left in the first half to give the Owls a 21-20 lead. Shirk’s two free throws a minute later made it 23-20 and Higgins followed with a turnaround jumper, but Windsor remained in the lead from then on. Shirk made a field goal and Hollis hit a 3-pointer just 30 seconds later to increase the lead to 28-22. Northwest junior Isaiah Guinn’s 3-point attempt rattled off the rim at the first-half buzzer.
The game remained close early in the third when Shirk passed to Hollis, who completed a fastbreak with a basket, and Drexler scored two of his five second-half points. A few moments later Higgins picked up his third foul. Windsor went on a quick 6-0 run on baskets by junior Cole Scott, Hollis and Barnes, who stole the ball, flew off the wing on the dribble and cut through the paint for a reverse layup, his most dazzling move of the night.
“We helped down on defense, and every time (Higgins) got the ball, we had two people on him,” Barnes said. “We missed A.J., but Cole Scott (six points, eight rebounds and three steals) and Xander Smith (two steals) brought the energy we needed.”
With his team trailing 42-31, Drexler missed two close-in attempts, but made a free throw and Higgins scored two of the next three baskets. Two free throws by Lion senior Carter Herrin cut the Windsor lead to 47-37 with 1:08 left in the third, but Barnes answered with a spin move and successful jump shot from the paint and then hit two treys.
Northwest beat Hancock 63-29 and Pacific 51-35 in the first two rounds of the tournament.
“Higgins and Drexler have a good chemistry and their attributes really offset each other very well,” Moore said. “Drexler is old-school, blocking shots. He’s our ‘glue’ guy. Higgins is a load, has a 99 percent motor, rebounds everything. We finally got our guards to buy into pressure. We’ve got the bigs on the back line. It’s clicking. Our aggressiveness is up.”
Senior guard Jack Randazzo was scoreless against Windsor, but Moore said he was the defensive player of the tournament.
“I’d put him against anybody. I’m really proud of what he’s doing,” Moore said.
Hawks claim own tournament title with win over Freeburg
Trailing by three at halftime, in the championship game of their own tournament, the Hillsboro girls basketball team outscored Freeburg (Ill.) 27-18 in the second half Jan. 27 to win 49-43, the eighth straight victory for the Hawks (16-2).
A 7-0 run to start the third quarter was key as Hawk senior Kaylee Hilton took command. First she swished a 3-point basket, then after a steal by sophomore Kyra Matlock, Hilton grabbed an offensive rebound and scored again. At the other end of the floor, her defensive rebound led to a basket by senior Bailey Scallet to give top-seeded Hillsboro a 29-25 lead.
Winners of the last two Hillsboro Tournament titles, No. 2 Freeburg (15-10) trailed the Hawks by 11 with 5:39 left in the game, but narrowed that gap to 47-43 with 1:06 left. Turnovers plagued Hillsboro in the final couple of minutes, but they made enough free throws to hold off the Midgets.
“Freeburg came out on fire and did a great job of running their offensive sets,” Hillsboro head coach Andrew Hubbard said. “We kept battling and working on defense in the third quarter. I felt like we were able to get after them. We have so many options and we started hitting some shots.
“Every year (the Midgets) come here, they’re so well coached and do such a good job of playing. We needed a good win like this.”
It’s been almost nothing but wins for Hubbard’s squad, who have yet to lose in 2024. The Hawks lost their season-opener to Lutheran South, 46-37, but have come up short only once since then, a 41-37 setback against Perryville in the West County Tournament over the holidays. At 5-0, Hillsboro is on track to repeat as champions of the large-schools division in the Jefferson County Activities Association.
In the final 3:00 of the first quarter, Hilton made a bucket and her sister, sophomore Ashley Hilton, sank a 3-pointer. But the Midgets countered with a trey by freshman Katelyn Whitworth at 1:03 and a basket by junior Aubrie Peterson with six seconds left to give Freeburg a 15-12 lead.
Sophomore Natalie Whitworth increased the lead to six (20-14) early in the second quarter with 2-point and 3-point baskets wrapped around a Scallet field goal. Scallet scored again at 5:35 and two minutes later, Kaylee’s basket cut the Midget lead to 20-18. Peterson was fouled while scoring and made the subsequent free throw to pump the advantage back to five. Matlock assisted Kaylee on a fastbreak layup, but Peterson had the answer again with a bucket for the Midgets’ 25-22 halftime margin.
Following Hillsboro’s initial surge to reclaim the lead in the third, the two teams traded buckets the rest of the quarter until Ashley’s basket with 2:02 left in the period stretched the Hawk lead to 37-29. Kaylee’s field goal at the buzzer gave Hillsboro a nine-point advantage going into the final quarter.
Kaylee assisted on Scallet’s baseline jump shot and the lead grew to 11, and another Kaylee basket made it 45-32 with 6:00 to play. But the Midgets wouldn’t yield quietly, outscoring the hosts 11-4 down the stretch as Natalie Whitworth scored five points in five minutes. The Hilton sisters each made a free throw in the last minute to help seal the win.
Kaylee’s game-high 22 points matched her season-high (Dec. 21 against Jefferson) and she’s averaging 12 points per game. That’s second on the team to Ashley, who scored 13 against Freeburg and averages 17.5 points per outing. Scallet finished with eight points, Matlock had four on two free throws and a field goal in the fourth, and senior Madelyn Shelby sank her two free-throw attempts for two points.
Peterson and Natalie Whitworth led Freeburg with 14 points apiece. Whitworth buried two 3-point shots, but Peterson was held without a field goal in the second half as Matlock and the Hawks turned up the pressure after gaining the lead.
“(Matlock’s) on-ball defense is phenomenal, and at the end of the game we don’t have to bring a lot of girls up to get the ball in because Kyra’s able to get open,” Hubbard said.
In the first round of the tournament Jan. 23 against No. 8 Herculaneum (5-9), Ashley Hilton made 13 field goals to finish with a season-high 29 points in a 78-49 win. She also had 12 of the Hawks’ 50 rebounds and snagged five steals. Kaylee had a double-double with 10 points and 12 boards.
Hillsboro held off fourth-seeded Seckman 65-55 in the semifinals. The Jaguars (10-6) beat No. 6 Meadow Heights 62-30 to finish third in the tournament.
“They (the Jaguars) shot the ball well against us and we’ll change some things on defense when we play them again,” Hubbard said.