Trenton was able to get one of their two high school basketball teams into the Gallatin Tournament finals Thursday night as semifinal action took center stage. The Lady Bulldogs kept their pre-season goal of playing in the championship game of every tournament they are in on track, hammering the Winston Lady Redbirds, 73-43. The Bulldogs couldn’t compete with powerhouse Hamilton, falling 70-33.
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Lady Bulldogs
The Winston Lady Redbirds have a team that figures to finish in the top three of the HDC Conference and compete with Mercer for the title and, for a quarter, they kept pace with the Trenton Lady Bulldogs. Both teams used the press and Trenton was only able to pull out to a 17-13 lead in the opening eight minutes.
Facing a pesky team that threatened to hang with them for the first time all season, the Lady Bulldogs responded, and in a big way. Trenton flexed its muscles in the second quarter and tore away from the Lady Redbirds with a 29-10 run that gave the Lady Bulldogs a commanding 46-23 halftime advantage.
Trenton kept the pressure on in the third quarter as they continued to add to their lead. By the start of the fourth quarter there was no question Trenton was title-game bound. The Lady Bulldogs coasted to the 30-point victory, watching the clock run continuously in the fourth quarter for the second game in a row.
Leading the way for Trenton once again was Rebekah Capeder. The senior forward piled up a season-high 33 points, giving her 64 in the two games played at the Gallatin Tournament so far. Megan Sole and Scotlin Hurley each scored eight points and Lindsey Derry gave the Lady Bulldogs seven points. Trenton also got five points from Micah Burkeybile, four from Halie Brewer, three from Maddie Hooyman and two each from Chanel Pash, Avery Whitaker and Cassidy Cotton.
With the win, the Lady Bulldogs moved to 2-0 and advanced to the Gallatin Tournament finals for the first time since 2005, when they finished as the runner-up. Trenton’s opponent in the championship will be the same team they faced in that 2005 final, the Hamilton Lady Hornets. Hamilton advanced with a 69-31 win over Maysville.
The championship game will be played at 3 p.m. on Saturday in Gallatin.
Bulldogs
The Bulldogs’ first foray into the winner’s bracket at the Gallatin Tournament since the 2005 season didn’t go exactly as they would have hoped. Going in, Trenton knew top-seeded Hamilton would be a tough test.
The Hornets ripped off a 24-0 first quarter run and led 46-10 at the half. Trenton settled down in the third quarter and was able to match Hamilton behind a pair of threes from Austin Norris and two from Keegan McGinness. Trenton couldn’t shrink Hamilton’s advantage any, however, and fell by 37 points.
“What we want to take away from this is how we played once we got over just the intimidation factor in the first half,” Bulldogs’ Head Coach Jeremy Austin said. “In the third quarter we played them pretty even at 18-18. I realize the intensity was probably down a little bit on their end, considering they already had the game kind of in hand, but the intensity on our end didn’t go down at all. We picked it up and they had the same press on us in the entire third quarter that they did in the first half. We couldn’t handle it in the first half, but in the third quarter we did handle it, so we tied it up at 18-18 there in the third quarter and that was our goal, to go out there and play them even in the second half.”
Trenton was led by Norris, who finished as the only Bulldog in double figures with 10 points. Colby Larson added seven points, McGinness had six, Brennon Vandevender had five, Austin Taul had four and Hunter Treadwell added one.
Trenton dropped to 1-1 on the season with the semifinal loss and will face the second-seeded Gilman City Hawks in the third-place game at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.