Royal over Hillsboro

On Tuesday night I got invited by a couple friends to take in the Royal basketball game because they knew a few guys that are on the team. I figured why not. I love high school basketball and this would give the opportunity to watch the type of game I wouldn't of watched normally. The Scenic Bluffs is typically one of the better Division Five conferences around, so I figured it would be a decent game anyway. Hillsboro was tied in second in conference and Royal was the team that we knew some of the guys.

I'll be honest I did pay as much attention to this game as normal because I was kind of there to hang out with my friends. Early on in the game neither team could hit an outside shot and both team seemed to just be throwing the ball up to the rim. Early on Hillsboro was led by 6'3 sophomore Max Stockwell who was able to get to the rim and score or get fouled, going to the free throw line and hitting his shots. Nothing was going Royal's way until late in the first half when their star 6'0 senior Jordan Baeseman went off scoring six straight points late to either tie the game or give Royal the slight lead. Unfortunately I forgot to write down the half time score.

In the second half fouling was the undoing of Hillsboro, as the made some dumb fouls which allowed Royal to get to the line in the third quarter where they were not real solid but, they were at the line so much that it didn't make a difference. Royal took the six point lead in the third. Their were only three, three point shots hit in the game and two of them came from Baeseman and the other from 5'9 Hillsboro senior Grant Jefferies. Neither team played great in this one as Royal gave Hillsboro every opportunity to come back in this game and they just couldn't capitalize. Final score was Royal 52 Hillsboro 49.

Top Players
Jordan Baeseman 6'0 senior Royal- Easily was the best player on the court in the game. Was able to get open at will it seemed but, his shot wasn't always falling but, it was falling enough that he scored 25 points in the game. Baeseman really controlled this game throughout even when he wasn't scoring he was doing a great job running the offense.

Max Stockwell 6'3 sophomore Hillsboro- Was able to drive the baseline all night long. When he wasn't making baskets he was getting fouled and hitting his free throws.

Box Score
Royal 52- Baeseman 25 Trae Ness 10 Brandon Retzlaff 8 Adam Vieth 5 Joshua Murray 5 Michael Salamonski 3 Charlie Brandt 0
Hillsboro 49- Stockwell 19 Matt Anderson 9 Brandon Stanek 8 Grant Jefferies 5 Joey Helgerson 4 Avery Rueckheim 4 Dan Benish 0 Brock Borchardt 0 Spencer Bjornsen 0

Honestly I was very surprised that Royal was able to beat Hillsboro and really expected Hillsboro to be better. I'm not sure that this was because Hillsboro just had a bad game or the Scenic Bluffs really isn't that good of a conference.