Varsity Teams Sweep Hoxie
The St. Francis varsity basketball teams both defeated their opponents from Hoxie on Friday, January 8th, in close games. The St. Francis girls defeated Hoxie by a score of 45-41. St. Francis led 9-8 after one quarter of play. The Lady Indians extended their lead to 13-8 with 5:27 remaining in the first quarter, but Hoxie gained the lead with 23 seconds remaining in the half and led by one at halftime (17-18).
St. Francis took a 20-18 lead on a trey by Jodie Hilt to open the second half. The third quarter ended with the Lady Indians trailing 27-28.
The Lady Indians led 31-18 at the seven minute mark in the fourth and extended the lead to 38-31 with 5:15 remaining. Hoxie soon rallied to cut the lead to 39-38 with 3:06 left. Kaitlin Figgins made a basket to give St. Francis a 41-38 lead and followed with another basket to extend the lead to 43-38. St. Francis went on to win their first game of the season by a score of 45-41.
Kaitlin Figgins led the Indians in scoring with 12 points. Jodie Hilt added 11. All nine Lady Indians who played in the game scored. Kaus led Hoxie with 16 points. Stithem scored 11 for the visiting Lady Indians.
In boys action, neither Indian team scored much early in the game. Both teams played zone early, worked the ball deliberately for shots, but did not shoot well early in the game. St. Francis trailed after one quarter 5-6.
The game was close throughout. The Indians trailed 9-10 with 4:10 left in the second. Hoxie increased the lead to 11-16 with 1:20 left in the half and went to the lockerroom with a 14-20 halftime lead.
St. Francis regained the lead at 3:16 in the third quarter, 26-25. St. Francis trailed 28-29 when Matt Raile got his 4th foul with approximately 2:30 left in the third and left the game. Trent Raile hit a big three with 0:27 left in the quarter to give the Indians a 33-29 lead. Brett Lampe hit another 3 as the third quarter buzzer sounded to extend the lead to 36-29.
The fourth quarter scoring opened with Trent Raile connecting on a trey from the top of the key to give St. Francis a 10 point lead (39-29). Hoxie soon rallied with a run of their own. The visiting Indians had cut the lead to 39-33 with 5:25 remaining and soon had the spread cut to two (39-37). Brett Lampe gave the Indians some breathing room when he connected on a trey to extend the lead to 42-37.
Matt Raile re-entered with 3:26 remaining in the game. Hoxie tied the game at 42-all with 2:36 remaining. St. Francis drew a foul on their next possession, but missed both free throws. Hoxie rebounded the ball but turned it over with 1:40 on the clock. Trent Raile was fouled with 31 seconds remaining and made one of two giving the Indians a narrow 43-42 lead. Matt Raile stole the ball from Hoxie on their next possession and drove for a layup. The Indians were up by one possession, 45-42. Hoxie would not go away quietly. Hoxie hit a three with 9 seconds remaining on the clock to tie the game again. St. Francis did not connect on their attempt at the buzzer. The game went into overtime.
The overtime became a free throw shooting contest with St. Francis making most of their attempts in the extra period to seal the win. Matt Raile made several crucial plays and free throws in the overtime. The overtime scoring began when Matt made a free throw to give the Indians a 46-45 lead. Matt then made a basket and 2 more free throws to extend the lead to 50-45. Brett Lampe was fouled with 0:56 remaining, but failed to connect on either shot. A free throw by Hoxie cut the lead to 50-46. Matt Raile then calmly swished four more from the charity stripe to give the Indians a commanding 54-46 lead. Forced to foul, Hoxie used the clock well, fouling quickly when the Indians got possession of the ball. Trent Raile hit one more free throw and Matt Raile added another pair of free throws to seal the 57-46 victory in overtime. St. Francis did not shoot well from the line, only making 12 of 23 for the game, but they made most of their attempts when the game was on the line to earn the win.
Matt Raile lead St. Francis in scoring with 26 points. Trent Raile scored 18 and Brett Lampe 9. Hoxie was led by Moss with 19 and Rall with 17.
Coach Beims had the following comments on the Hoxie game.
"It was nice to finally play a game. We haven’t seen the court in almost a month, and I think that might have contributed to our cold start. Hoxie did a good job of slowing us down, but we had some open looks that we just couldn’t knock down. The second half though we turned up our defense a little and the rim started to “unpucker.”
There are 2 rather irrefutable truths to the game of basketball that proved themselves yet again against Hoxie. First, when your offense isn’t working, let your defense be your offense. We played much better defense in the second half, and it seemed to open doors for us on the offensive end. Second, free throws win ball games (or lose ball games if you miss them.) We weren’t very productive from the line in regulation, but hitting 10 of 13 in overtime certainly contributed to the outcome."
Next action for the team will be on Saturday, January 9th, when they host the Golden Plains teams in the High School Gym. Tip-off is set for 2:00 PM.
