Horsemen, Trotters crush Troy

HORSEMEN 58, TROJANS 38

A Trojan Horse might have helped Troy's boys basketball team at Plains Saturday when the Horsemen stampeded the Trojans for a 58-38 victory and the Horsemen's ninth win of the season.

Troy got on the board first with a 2-pointer. Horseman Anaya Loberg tied things up, but Troy returned the favor with a long 3-point shot. Horseman Zephaniah Dines left the game with a leg or foot injury early in the game, but that didn't stop Plains from taking the lead with baskets by Aden West and Darren Standeford. Late in the first, Trojan Kempton Sloan fell hard to the floor and had to be carried off. He was soon taken by ambulance to Clark Fork Valley Hospital.

The Trojans retook the lead with 2 for 2 free throws with 27 seconds to go in the first quarter, but with 1.5 seconds left in the quarter West flipped one up from under the rim for 2 points and 1 point behind the Trojans. Zayden Allen tied things up early in the second with 1 of 2 free throws, but Troy also got 1 of 2 to regain the lead. It didn't last long. Plains took a 19-15 lead with an Allen 3-pointer, but midway through the quarter, the Trojans tied the game again. Soon, Standeford struck, first with a foul shot, then with a 2-point basket, followed by another Allen hit, ending the half with a 25-19 Plains lead.

"Our play in the second half was much better offensively. After a slow start we started making shots," said Tyrel Allen, the Horsemen's head coach. "Most obvious to me was how much Aden West impacted the game. He seemed to come down with every rebound in stretches and made some good putbacks that helped us stretch our lead," he added.

Troy never got the lead again after the first half. Loberg and West started off the third with baskets to spread the gap and with 36 seconds on the third quarter clock, West scored 1 of 2 free throws to end the quarter 40-27. The Horsemen kept a double digit lead in the fourth with Loberg, Standeford and West hitting their marks. Sixteen seconds remained in the game when Joe Martin made the last basket.

The Horsemen had four players scoring in double figures. West and Loberg had 17 apiece and Standeford and Allen had 10 each. "Aden led our rebounding with a monstrous 18, followed by Anaya with nine and Pablo (Hernandez) with eight," the coach said.

The Horsemen JV squad, coached by Alec Cole and Kasey Craft, clobbered Troy 45-20. Plains started off strong and finished the first quarter with an 11-4 lead. Plains was ahead 28-10 at halftime and by the end of the third, the score was 37-16. The JV scoring leaders were Jacob Lulack with 24 points plus six rebounds and six steals; and Cooper Meredith with 8 points, three steals, two rebounds and two blocks.

"Our JV boys played great team defense the whole game. It took us about a quarter to get warmed up on offense, but after that all the players were firing on all cylinders. All their hard work shows when they are on the court together," said Cole. Plains lost its C-squad when two players were cut due to poor grades.

The Horsemen will travel to Thompson Falls for a rematch with the Blue Hawks on Thursday, Feb. 1, followed by a game at Superior on Saturday, Feb. 2. The next home game is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 9, versus Eureka. Senior Night is slated for Saturday, Feb. 10, against Mission.

TROTTERS 45, TROJANS 12

The Plains Trotters dominated the basketball court Saturday from the start with Katelyn Subatch stealing the ball from the Lady Trojans within 10 seconds after tip-off. The sophomore finished the night with 11 steals and collected 8 points.

The conference game against Troy at Plains resulted in a 45-12 triumph for the Trotters, their largest point spread of the season, said Brooks Sanford, the Trotter head coach. Their victory gave the girls a 10-4 record. The LadyTrojans now have only two wins and 11 losses.

"I thought our team defense and overall effort was very good," said Sanford. "We struggled shooting the ball but our girls celebrate each other's successes and pick each other up when they miss a shot or make a mistake. That kind of team atmosphere is what allowed us to sustain our defensive effort tonight and it is what fuels the success of the program moving forward," he said.

The Trotters started compiling the points from the beginning. Subatch missed her layup shot, but nabbed one of two free throws to put Plains on the board. Trotter Lexie Deming hit the first two goals, followed soon by two baskets by Blakely Lakko. And with 12 seconds on the first quarter clock, Ava Lawyer found the mark to end the quarter 13-0.

The Trotters kept up the pressure in the second quarter with Lakko flipping one in from below the rim, followed quickly by two baskets from Lawyer and one by Peyton Wasson for 21 unanswered Trotter points. With just over three minutes in the first half, Troy finally put one in for 3 points. Claire Lakko scored with 21 seconds on the second quarter clock and at halftime the Trotters had a 23-3 lead.

Plains drew first blood in the third with a free throw point by the senior Lakko. Troy's Cortenie Rogers finally put the Lady Trojans on the board with a 2-pointer, but Subatch came right back with a basket from the corner, followed by 2 for 2 from the foul line from Lawyer for a 27-5 score. With 30 seconds on the clock, Lawyer hit it again. She was fouled and missed the free throw, but rebounded her own shot and scored, then hit the mark again and then with 20 seconds left in the third, nabbed 1 of 2 free throws to be the lead scorer of the night with 17 points.

Sanford put in some of his junior varsity players toward the end of the third, allowing freshmen Emma O'Keefe and Taryn Meredith to score. Troy got a 3-pointer with a minute and a half in the game, but the Trotters got the big win.

Blakely Lakko chalked up 11 points in the game and Katelyn Subatch had 8. Deming led with 10 rebounds.

The Trotters travel to Thompson Falls for a rematch with the Lady Hawks on Thursday, Feb. 1, followed by a game at Superior on Saturday, Feb. 2. The next home game is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 9, versus Eureka. Senior Night is slated for Saturday, Feb. 10, against Mission.