ON THEIR TERMS

Trenton Girls Close Dominating Era With 54-40 Third-Place Game Victory

Inside the John Q. Hammons Student Center in Springfield on Friday night, the greatest era of Trenton High School girls’ athletics came to an end. Never before had a group accomplished so much in a four-year span at Trenton. It’s likely the run will never again be replicated.
Fittingly enough – for all the victories, all the trophies and all the accolades that this group has achieved – it ended with a win.
Trenton defeated Licking 54-40 in the Class 3 girls basketball third-place game. The win gave Trenton a final record of 27-1.
“I think it’s harder, because we have played together for so long, to really think this is over,” Trenton senior Salem Croy said. “It’s been 12 years that we have been playing together. I’m so glad that we pulled out the win. (Licking) is a great team, it was a tough game. But, just to be out there with my best friends, knowing that it was our last game, was more than anything I could have asked for.”
This final victory followed the blueprint penned by this team all year long. The Bulldogs used suffocating defense, lightning-quick guard play and a dominating presence inside. It was everything the 26 previous wins were, barring the lone blemish on the Bulldogs’ final record – a loss to arguably the greatest Class 3 girls basketball team the state has ever seen, just 16 hours earlier.
When the final second ticked off the clock, this group, so cherished by a community that traveled in droves the nearly four hours to cheer them on during this culminating event, gathered near the bench and embraced as teammates one final time.
“We didn’t want to end on a loss,” Senior Ainsley Tolson said. “A reflection of the whole season, we haven’t lost except to the best team in the whole state. That’s a pretty good record and we knew we wanted to finish it how we started it.”
Trenton yielded seven offensive rebounds to Licking in the first half and only forced the Wildcats into one turnover. Yet, when the buzzer sounded at the conclusion of the opening two quarters, Licking had just 12 points on the scoreboard. The Wildcats, who shot 45 percent from the floor on the season coming in, connected on just four-of-23 shot attempts in the first half, including a two-for-12 mark from beyond the three-point line.
“Really, the reason we have won a lot of games is because we really play sound defense,” Coach Brian Upton said. “(Licking) is very aggressive. Their guards average almost four rebounds apiece, so when that shot goes up, there are usually three or four people crashing. But, I thought overall, defensively we were very good. They struggled shooting, which was to our advantage. They didn’t hit some shots that they were probably capable of making, but I think that was partly because of what we were doing defensively.”
The Bulldogs opened the second half on a 7-0 run to push the lead to 26-12 and held the 14-point advantage through the remainder of the third quarter, going to the fourth up 36-22. Trenton pushed the advantage to 19 points with just five minutes to play, but had to hold on as Licking came charging back. The Wildcats trimmed the lead to single digits with two minutes to play, but Trenton staved off the threat, hitting free throws at the end to stretch the final margin to the 14-point spread.
“It was really important today,” Upton said. “I wanted so bad, personally, for this group to win. You know, we don’t talk a lot about just winning. In high school you want to have success, you want to play hard and you want to do all of the right things, but dang it, I wanted them to win today because I wanted them to walk off the court with something special that nobody at Trenton High School has done before in basketball. I think they have cemented the legend that is this senior group. They have been the most prolific athletic group that has come through and it was fitting that they got to go off with a win. I couldn’t be happier for them and the world is going to be a better place when they are out in it.”
Trenton was just seven-for-16 from the free-throw line in the game and connected on just three-of-13 three-point attempts, but the Bulldogs destroyed Licking inside. Of the 54 points Trenton scored, 36 came in the paint.
“We are a really good interior passing team,” Upton said. “When we are moving between, Sidney (Lynch), Maci (Moore), Taylor (Richman), Lexi (Whitaker), whoever is in the post, they make an effort to find each other and today it was a little more from our guards driving in and finding a player, but what you kind of saw today is what we have done all year.”
Sophomore Maci Moore was a big part of Trenton’s interior prowess, leading the Bulldogs in her final game of the season with 22 points, six rebounds and two blocked shots. She was 10-of-11 from the field for the contest.
Behind Moore, Tolson went for 17 points, six rebounds and eight assists. Croy had eight points, six rebounds and three assists and Mykah Hurley finished with five points. Trenton’s total was rounded out by two points from Sidney Lynch, who also had a game-high 11 rebounds. Trenton out-rebounded Licking 38-21 in the game.
“I feel like rebounding is more of what I do best,” Lynch said. “Maci rebounds well, too, so whenever we can clean up the rebounds it helps a lot. It helps us get second chances and limit the other team. I’m not much of a scorer, I’ll score whenever I am open, but I work hard to get as many rebounds as I can to help make up for that.”
Trenton’s five senior players closed their careers with a 101-14 overall basketball record. Combined with their record on the softball diamond, Trenton was 198-27 in the last four years combined across both sports. They collected a state runner-up finish in softball this past fall and captured a fourth-place finish in basketball in 2017 to go with this year’s third-place trophy.
“I think it’s awesome,” Tolson said of her and her classmates’ run. “I would take a second, third and fourth over fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth. I’m really proud of our team. I think you don’t get there without having a good team culture and just love for the game and love for each other. I’m really proud of us and I’m glad I got to have this experience with these girls.”
Trenton will attempt to press on without the senior group that has become known as the “Fab Five.” After their final game as Bulldogs, Upton took a moment to reflect on the group.
“There really aren’t any words that I could say that would explain how I feel about this senior group,” he said. “From day one it was energy and excitement, fun and determination. I knew they were good basketball players and I knew they were good softball players. As a matter of fact, most of the time I was a little bit jealous because I thought they played more softball than basketball. But, the longer that I got to be around them, the more I realized how special of people they are, let alone whatever athletic event that they are competing in. The way that they cared for each other, the way they cared for things in general and the way they acted on the court – you know, I’ve often said that a team plays as a reflection of their coach, but to be honest with you, there were a lot of times when I was coaching as a reflection of them and their love for the game and how they played it.”