Hazen tops Trinity

• Breanna Beecher and Marinna Marsh

Press Photo by Dustin Monke Hazen senior guard Breanna Beecher, left, pokes the ball away from Dickinson Trinity senior forward Marinna Marsh during Tuesday night’s District 14 girls basketball game between the seventh-ranked Titans and ninth-ranked Bison at Knights of Columbus Activities Center. Hazen improved to 7-0 with a 64-60 victory.

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Hazen junior Allison Opp didn’t really have a handle on her game in the first half against Dickinson Trinity on Tuesday night. Then, with one shot early in the third quarter, everything became clear again.

Opp sank a 3-pointer to open the third quarter and sparked a 14-2 run that created a sizeable lead the ninth-ranked and unbeaten Bison held onto — despite a furious Titan comeback — for a 64-60 victory over seventh-ranked Trinity in a District 14 girls basketball game at Knights of Columbus Activities Center.

“We came out with intensity and just took care of it as a team,” said Opp, who scored 15 points and hit three 3-pointers.

Hazen’s third-quarter outburst helped turn a 24-22 halftime lead into a 45-32 advantage eight minutes later and threatened to end the Titans’ hopes with one quarter remaining.

Opp scored eight of her points in the third while Stef Bohrer and Jenna Maas each hit big shots to help give Hazen (7-0) a 36-24 lead just 3½ minutes into the second half.

Bohrer scored a game-high 16 points while shooting 7 of 12 from the field and Maas had 14 points, shooting 4 of 5 from the field and 5 of 5 from the free-throw line.

However, it was Maas’ shot at the end of the first half that Hazen coach Leland Opp truly believes began the run.

The junior guard took an in-bounds pass after a jump ball with 8.7 seconds left before halftime and went from Trinity’s end to the top of the opposite key, where she swished an 18-foot jumper to give Hazen a halftime lead.

“I thought that was really big,” Leland Opp said. “Any time you can get a big basket like that before half. It relaxed the kids at halftime.”

But, no lead was safe against the Titans, and Hazen’s coach knew that.

After taking a 53-37 lead off a Kate Berg 3-pointer with 4:49 left in the fourth, Trinity and senior forward Breanna Messer began to chip away.

Messer scored 12 of her team-high 15 points after Berg’s 3-pointer and, along with some intense defense, helped the Titans back.

“We realized we were down and we had to pick it up,” Messer said. “As a team we did excellent in coming back.”

Led by Messer’s urgency and senior guard Sheyenne Plummer’s defense — she had a game-high four steals — the Titans (6-2) got back into the game. Trinity climbed close as 61-58 with 23 seconds left after Avery Jirges knocked down a shot in the post.

But, Hazen called a time out and Trinity was forced to foul. It sent Breaunna Oakland to the free-throw line, who sank both her attempts. Messer came back and hit a shot in the lane with 8 seconds left but Maas put the game out of reach by making her first free throw of a double bonus with 4.5 seconds left.

Trinity coach Alysia Hugret looked back to the first half as to where her team’s problems started. The Titans got down 10-3 just five minutes into the game before going on a seven-point run to end the quarter tied at 10.

The teams basically went back and forth the second quarter until Maas gave the Bison a lead

“You know, we just didn’t do any of the little things in the first half,” Hugret said. “I mean, we were getting outworked in every single possession in the first half. We were playing timid.”

Hugret said the team needs to learn from the loss and use it as motivation for the month-and-a-half stretch leading up to postseason tournaments.

“We need to learn a lot from this game, go to work tomorrow and become a better basketball team because of it,” Hugret said.

Hazen 10 24 45 64

Trinity 10 22 32 60

H: Stef Bohrer 16, Allison Opp 15, Jenna Maas 14, Breaunna Oakland 7, Brianna Beecher 6, Kate Berg 6.

T: Breanna Messer 15, Sheyenne Plummer 9, Avery Jirges 8, Mackenzie Glasser 7, Marinna Marsh 7, Ashley Sickler 6, Katie Kovash 4, Emily Gordon 4.

3-pointers: Opp 3, Maas, Berg, Glasser. Free throws: H 15-23, T 17-20. Total fouls: H 17, T 21. Rebounds: H 25 (Bohrer 4), T 33 (Marsh 6). Assists: H 2 (Beecher 2), T 6 (Messer 2). Steals: Hazen 8 (Oakland 3, Opp 3), T 11 (Plummer 4). Turnovers: H 17, T 22.

Tags: trinity, titans, hazen, bison, allison, opp, breanna, messer, alysia, hugret