Sports News

Moving slowly toward its January scheduled, where the Hillsboro Burro girls basketball team plays 10 games in 31 days, coach Kyle Morehart’s team has a good chance of taking a 500 or better record into the new year.

The 3-2 Burros, who played MayPort-CG last night in Hillsboro, meet the Griggs County Central Cougars tonight (Friday) in Cooperstown. The Burros are scheduled to play Norman County West next Thursday (Dec. 2) in the Comet Classic tournament at Mayville.

The MPCG Patriots and the GCC Cougars, both District 3 teams, are struggling this year. 

Records matter little in MPCG-Hillsboro games, Morehart tells.

“They (Patriots) will challenge us just like they do every year. We always have some good games.”

The Burros did not have a good game last time on the hard court. They were run over by the Hatton-Northwood Thunder, 52-38, at Hatton last Friday.

The Burros, who played with the Thunder in the first half, fell behind in the third quarter, losing eventually by 14 in a poor shooting night by any standards.

Hillsboro was 14 of 47 from the floor for 29.8 percent.

“We need to rebound from that disappointing loss,” conceded the Burro coach. “We missed a few easy shots in the third quarter, and we were careless with our passing.”

His team started pressing, “trying too hard,” according to the coach.

“We lost the confidence we had in the first half.”

Hatton-Northwood’s pressing defense rattled the Burros.

“It wore us down,” said Morhart. “But give the Thunder credit, they’re a very balanced team with a deep bench.”

Morehart said the Thunder in the pivotal third quarter were “relentless.”

Junior Ashley Doeden, Hillsboro’s 6-ft. center, led the Burros in scoring with 16 points. Maggie Evenson added 11 points.

Hillsboro’s game tonight at Cooperstown is a make-up game originally scheduled  Dec. 4; the game was postponed because of the weather.

Griggs County came into the week with a 2-4 overall record. MayPort-CG was 1-4 starting the week.

Norman County West last year handed the Burros one of their five regular season losses.

The Burros beat MPCG and GCC handedly last year.