Hinsdale Basketball Completes Sweep

The Hinsdale Raiders and Lady Raiders each had a very successful weekend scoring two wins over Dodson and Poplar.

The games with Dodson were home games so I'll report to you what I saw.

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Everyone played in the Raider boys victory over the Dodson Coyotes with Hinsdale head coach Mitch Capdeville substituting freely and getting all his players into the fray.

It was good to see Austin Leatherberry, Hinsdale's 6'0" eighth grader getting some playing time after making his required 10 practices.

With Lukas Johnson AWOL, (In Florida on a family outing), freshman Cache Younkin got the nod to start and my-oh-my did he do a bang up job indeed. Younkin scored only 4 points but hauled in 10 rebounds and 3 steals. Nice game Cache.

Not to be out done, classmate Logan McColly scored 7 points, got 1 steal and fought for 6 rebounds.

This kid is developing a very sweet hook shot from 8 to 10 feet. Virtually unstoppable. Things are looking pretty good for future Raider teams. He earned my "Star of the Game".

Wrangler Jones, our other eighth grader scored 2 points, got a couple rebounds and a couple steals. This kid isn't afraid of putting up a shot if he's in the clear and squared up to the bucket.

Val Robert got some playing time and scored a deuce, grabbed a rebound and had an assist while Pablo Pascual grappled for 3 rebounds.

As for the starters??

Ho Hum. Well, not really.

They put up a coach's dream game with all starters getting in the scoring column and not one player getting the lions share of the buckets. Wyatt Pattison was team high with 11 while Dallas Capdeville hit for 10.

Kyle Albus hit a long-range three, a deuce and went 3 of 4 from the charity stripe for 8 points and grabbed 5 rebounds according to my figures.

He stunned the crowd, and himself, when he laid a bank shot 3-pointer off the glass from 16 feet while standing just inside the baseline. You figure that one out.

4'10" Brett Johnson nailed a three and when he got fouled while shooting another three he dropped all three free throws as calmly as putting avocado spread on a yogurt and sardine sandwich. He also had four rebounds and a couple steals.

Raiders are now 7-1 overall and 4-1 in conference play.

Final score: Hinsdale 51, Dodson 27

On to the girls game now without further adieu. (that's French for cow cookies.)

And here again, the young players shone to a brilliance. 5'5" eighth grader Casity Boucher played a near flawless game scoring 10 points, 6 of 6 from the charity line. She grabbed 5 rebounds and had a steal. Nice game, again, Casity.

The Lady Raiders jumped out to a double digit lead in the first 8 minutes thanks to Whitney Molina knocking down most everything she shot for a huge game high total 23 points.

She added 9 rebounds, 8 assists and 7 of 8 from the free throw line.

Whitney took the ball away from a Dodson player and went coast to coast for the easy layup but it went awry so she calmly gathered it in again, amongst the Dodson players who had finally caught up, and put it back up and in with a wide grin on her face aimed at Coach Ralph.

It was great.

Bethany Lacock had another of her solid games grabbing 8 rebounds, 3 steals and knocking down 8 points.

Chadaya Christensen hit yet another double/double with 13 points and 10 rebounds on 5 for 9 shooting and 3 of 4 from the line. She held Dodson's leading scorer to just 13 points.

Unselfish almost to a fault Courtney Capdeville scored just one free throw but she had 6 assists, 5 rebounds and 3 steals for a very nice game indeed.

One great play saw Courtney steal at the Dodson end of the court and take the ball to center court where she passed to Bethany who hit Whitney with a zinger.

Whit saw she was covered so she quick-timed a bounce-pass to an open Delaney Beil.

Delaney didn't hesitate.

She dumped one in from about 12 feet just as pretty as a....well, as a... newborn Eli Jacob Lacock. ( I struggled with a way to get that one in but it's done.)

I asked Head Coach Ralph Ellsworth what changes he saw in this game. He said "mostly their ball control. It was better than our last game. We worked on that all week."

He added "I have faith in them as a team although they are very good at testing that faith at times but they're a good bunch of girls and the younger ones are coming alone as well as I hoped they would."

With just five seasoned starters they are going to have to count on 1 junior,1 freshman and 3 eighth graders to step to the plate when and if starters get into foul trouble. So far they have done just that and more.

Final score was Hinsdale Lady Raiders 67 and Dodson Lady Coyotes 31.

Friday we travel to Lustre and Saturday we play host to Frazer. Be there or be square.

Girls are now 7-1 over all and 4-1 in conference.

That's it for now folks. Thanks for listening.