3/16/2009 3:45:00 PM Hill carries Tigers past Royals
Royals senior guard Jenna Lillemoe gets the ball swiped from her hands by Minneapolis South’s Gabrielle Roberts in second-half action Thursday, March 12 in Osseo. The Royals lost to the Tigers 59-45. PHOTO: Mark Trockman
Section final sadness
Hopkins wasn't the only area team that ended its season in the section championship game.
Class 2A, Section 4: Jordan 46, Providence Academy 27 The Lions scored just eight points in the second half after trailing by only two at the break. Samantha Zopfi led the way with nine points for Providence (17-10). This was the first section championship appearance in program history.
Class 3A, Section 6: Minneapolis North 52, Orono 49 The third-seeded Spartans (24-5) could not avoid the upset from the fourth-seeded Polars at Concordia University in St. Paul. No further statistics were made available.
By Jon Weisbrod
For most of the game against Hopkins, Minneapolis South's superstar Tayler Hill played nothing like the state's all-time leading scorer in the Class 4A, Section 6 championship on Thursday, March 12.
Two shots from beyond the arc didn't even graze iron in the first half as the versatile senior combo-guard struggled to get going.
But then, something happened.
In the final 9 minutes, 51 seconds of the game, Hill turned the switch on and exploded for 17 of her team-high 23 points in the span, carrying the second-seeded Tigers past top-seeded Hopkins 59-45 in front of a full house at Osseo High School.
After a see-saw opening frame that was capped by a buzzer-beating fade away jumper by Kara Elofson, the Royals found themselves trailing by just one point at the break.
In the first half, Hill - playing in front of University of Minnesota women's head coach Pam Borton - was a frigid 3-for-10 from the field, which included a pair of air-balls in a 60-second span right before intermission.
Not much changed to start the second as South was only able to extend its lead to 32-28 in the first seven minutes.
But just when it looked like the game was going to settle into a nail-biter, Hill started heating up.
Her scoring flurry began innocently enough with a pair of free throws at 9:51 and again at 8:20.
Her first bucket from the field in the half came on a lay-up with 7:42 remaining, and just like that, the Tigers were up 10 points.
In the game's final 6:35, she scored 11 points, six coming on old-fashioned three-point plays while another three came from beyond the arc.
In the second half alone, Hill, who is undecided about college, was 6-for-6 from the free throw line and 4 of 7 from the field, helping South build a lead that peaked at 49-35 with 4:34 on the clock.
Hopkins (26-3), which pulled within 10 points in the final two minutes, was led by Elofson's 14 points. However, she was held to just one field goal in the final 18 minutes.
Jenna Lillemoe added 12 points while Hana Potter chipped in with seven for the Royals.
Hopkins, which split a pair of games with South in the regular season, struggled from the stripe in the second half, connecting on just 10 of 20 shots.
This is the second straight season the Tigers have defeated the Royals in the section championship. Last year, the score was 51-42.
Hill came into the game averaging more than 31 points per game.
South enters the Class 4A state tournament on a 25-game winning streak.
