Hawks prove too much for Trojans

CENTERBURG — It was a matter of execution at both ends of the floor on Wednesday night as the Bishop Hartley High School girls basketball team defeated the host Centerburg Trojans, 57-43, to win the championship of the Shelly Whited Holiday Classic.

For the Trojans (4-4), it was a lackluster performance that saw them make only 10 field goals while they were outrebounded by the Hawks, 25-14.

“It seemed like (Bishop Hartley) had the edge in most things tonight,” Centerburg coach Todd Nauman said. “We didn’t look very sharp and I don’t think we executed at either end of the floor very well.”

The game was still fairly close, 20-17, with three minutes to go in the first half when Hawks’ forward Angela Lonza (4-of-7 field goals, three 3-pointers, four rebounds, two steals) hit a 3-pointer and then was fouled on the Hawks’ next trip down the floor. She missed both ends of the ensuing free-throw opportunity, but teammate Robin Kravas (5-of-15 fgs, four rebounds, four steals) got the putback and the Hawks were suddenly up by eight points, 27-19.

The Trojans tried fighting back. Forward Tristan Simpson (four points, three rebounds) scored on a nice follow of a missed Claire Harvey (10-of-10 free throws) shot attempt and guard Brianna Campbell (five points) sank a 3-pointer late in the half.

The Hawks, however, seemed to have an answer for everything that Centerburg tried to do. An Amanda Setser (4-of-5 fgs, 11 points) basket set up by a Kravas steal and feed, followed by a Kravas 3-pointer at the half, widened the Hawks’ lead to 33-24. The Hawks finished with 11 steals to Centerburg’s three.

Freshman Stacy Fielding (five points) gave the Trojans their only field goal in the third quarter, while the Hawks got a pair of buckets by Setser and a Lonza 3-pointer to end the third quarter, giving the Hawks a 45-32 advantage.

Centerburg shot a woeful 34.8 percent from the floor, while the Hawks hit on nearly half of their shot attempts. The Trojans hit six free throws in the third and were 17-of-23 from the stripe for the game.

“We didn’t execute on the offensive end,” said Nauman. “We like to get up and down the floor. We want to press. We didn’t execute well enough offensively to get into our defense the way we wanted and we didn’t score enough points. We made ten field goals for the game and four of them are in the fourth quarter? What kind of games are you going to win like that? We made six field goals in three quarters. That explains a lot.”

Bishop Hartley led by as many as 19 in the fourth, winning easily despite a trio of Trojans’ 3-pointers in the final two minutes of the game — two by forward Mackenzie Stoyle (3-of-5 fgs, 13 points, five rebounds) and another by guard Carolyn Moore (four points).

“This is unsatisfactory,” said Nauman. “We worked too hard in the last year to come out and this is the best performance that we can put on the floor. We’ll either execute better or we will be in much better condition the next time we play.”

The Centerburg jayvee team defeated Elgin handily, 85-30, earlier in the day. Haley Bramer had 21 points and Mikaela Weldy had 15 points to lead the Trojans.