The Trenton High School basketball teams were at home Tuesday night as they played host to the Plattsburg Tigers in Trenton.
The boys’ five-game winning streak came to an end as they suffered a 60-51 loss. The girls on the other hand, got back into the win column with a 36-34 win over the Lady Tigers
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Lady Bulldogs
The Trenton girls rolled into their contest with the Plattsburg Lady Tigers on a four-game losing streak. They hadn’t been able to pull out a win since the Gallatin Tournament consolation semifinal game clear back on Nov. 28.
The Lady Bulldogs got the job done, however, in a very close game that saw Trenton pull out the two-point win.
Trenton got off to a solid start, but Plattsburg held a 13-10 lead at the end of the first quarter of play. Trenton rallied in the second quarter, going on a 14-9 run to take the lead back. Going into halftime, Trenton was up 24-22.
Defense took over in the second half as both teams struggled to find points. Both Trenton and Plattsburg scored just three points in the third quarter.
Into the fourth quarter the teams went. In the waning moments of a tie game, Trenton’s Liz Hoffman hit two big free throws to give the Lady Bulldogs a two-point advantage that they would not lose. The Lady Bulldogs’ defense held, giving them the victory.
Aimee Gutshall led the way for the Lady Bulldogs, scoring 12 points. Lindsey Derry also hit double figures, scoring 11 points.
Perhaps the biggest performances the Lady Bulldogs got, however, came from Tasha Ewing and Emily Anderson. The two were assigned to cover Plattsburg’s Melanie Barnes, who has already committed to play collegiate basketball for Northwest Missouri State University.
“We had a great defensive effort led by Tasha and Emily,” Head Coach Quentin Albrecht said. “They were assigned to shut down Plattsburg’s go-to girl and they did.”
Trenton advanced to 2-5 with the win.
Bulldogs
Turnovers proved to be too much to overcome for the Bulldogs, who gave the ball away 27 times on their way to a nine-point loss.
Trenton came out strong in the first quarter, but struggled in the second period. When the game reached halftime, Trenton trailed 26-20.
The Bulldogs came out of the locker room strong and opened the third quarter on a 7-2 run. Mistakes, however, plagued the Bulldogs as Plattsburg re-took the lead. Plattsburg made a mistake of its own in the final seconds of the third quarter when Michael Kurtz was fouled on a three-point shot. Kurtz nailed all three free throws to give Trenton a 39-38 lead heading into the final eight minutes.
Trenton fell off at the end of the final quarter and was forced to foul. The Tigers knocked down their free throws and escaped with the win.
In addition to Trenton’s 27 turnovers, the Bulldogs struggled to find their rhythm from beyond the arc, going only 5-of-15 from three-point land.
“We can’t win games turning the ball over as many times as we did,” Head Coach Jeremy Austin said. “We are a better team than what we showed the other night and this just kind of reminds us that we still have a lot of things we need to work on. We can’t live and die by the three because the first part is great, but the second part is always pretty rough.”
Trenton was led by Kyle Hoyt and Brett Lawson, each of whom scored 11 points. Hoyt added nine rebounds and Lawson pulled down six. Kameron Alley also hit double figures, scoring 10 points.
One bright spot in the loss for the Bulldogs was their free throw shooting. Trenton hit 14-of-15 from the charity stripe in the game.
Trenton fell to 5-2 with the loss.
Both Bulldog squads will return to the court on Thursday, Dec. 27, in the NCMC Holiday Shoot-Out at the Ketcham Community Center in Trenton. Both teams will match up with Richmond, with the girls tipping-off at 7 p.m. and boys action to follow.