News editor
Joe Knoll, Abby Sechrist, and Tas Sanchez fueled fourth quarter comebacks as both boys’ and girls’ teams capped off 2015 with home wins Thursday against Remington.
The boys traded leads with the Broncos in the first half, with the Trojans ahead 9-8 at the end of the first quarter, and the Broncos leading 26-25 at the half.
Hillsboro trailed 30-37 when Knoll scored his first bucket of the game, a 3-pointer, with 1 minute, 5 seconds left in the third quarter.
Hillsboro fans went crazy over the next 6 minutes as the freshman turned phenom, draining 4 more treys and 2 free throws for a team-high 17 points.
Coupled with 5 points from Austin Cross, Knoll’s barrage propelled the Trojans to a 52-43 lead with about four minutes remaining. Braden Vogt and Preston Loewen, along with Cross, picked up the scoring from there, holding the Broncos at bay for a 62-54 triumph.
Loewen finished second to Knoll in scoring with 15 points, and Cross added 12.
In the girls’ game, the combination of Sechrist and Sanchez wasn’t as flashy as Knoll, but was equally important in the Trojans’ surge to victory.
Hillsboro trailed at the end of each of the first three quarters, and was behind 42-40 when Sechrist and Sanchez went to work.
Inbounding the ball from under the Trojans’ basket, Sanchez found Sechrist for a bucket that tied the score at 42. After a Remington free throw, Sanchez rebounded her own miss and made the go-ahead shot.
The pair combined on another inbounds play with Sechrist hitting a long jumper, and each scored driving layups to put the Trojans up 50-45.
Sechrist sealed the game for Hillsboro by hitting two free throws with 4 seconds to play to put the game out of reach of the Broncos, 53-48.
The Trojans got good scoring across the lineup, with Alex Ratzlaff hitting for 16, Sanchez and Sechrist each with 11, Callie Linnens with 7, and Mesa Merrill hitting a pair of treys for 6.