By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
EMPORIA -- The Hayden Wildcats, most of them anyway, got a two-week late start in preparations for the 2023-2024 basketball because they were busy helping the Wildcat football team make a run to the Class 3A title game.
Trey Brown (left), talking to his Hayden team during a time out, picked up his first win as the Wildcats' head coach Thursday, a 69-53 decision over Trinity Academy. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
But while the Wildcats may not have been in midseason form they turned in a pretty good impression of that Thursday in the opening round of the Paul Terry Classic at White Auditorium, riding a 30-point third quarter and a 22-point night from Cooper Colboch to a 69-53 win over Trinity Academy in Trey Brown's debut as Hayden's head coach.
"It was good to see what we need to clean up and what things we've got and the guys we've got and different things like that,'' Brown said. "We battled through adversity in the first half and struggled offensively, but we picked it up defensively and then scored 30 points in the third, which most of it was off our defense. We learned a lot.''
Hayden and Trinity were deadlocked 15-all at the end of the first quarter before the Wildcats took a 26-23 halftime advantage and put the game away with a 30-16 third-quarter onslaught.
Senior Cooper Colboch (2) scored a game-high 22 points with six 3-pointers in Thursday's 69-53 Hayden win over Trinity. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Colboch, a 5-foot-11 senior, was a big catalyst for the Wildcats, connnecting on six 3-pointers on the way to his career-high night.
"I felt really comfortable,'' Colboch said. "I put in a lot of work over the summer and I feel like we've got a lot of young guys coming up who play their part really well. Fortunately shots were falling tonight for pretty much everybody and the guys do a great job of getting me open looks so I feel really confident this year. I'm excited.''
The Wildcats also got 11 points from senior Dom Ridley while 11 Hayden players, including three sophomores and a freshman, saw action and nine cracked the scoring column.
"I would say we've done a lot in the time that we've had,'' Colboch said. "It's definitely tough with not even two weeks of practice and we still have a lot of room to grow, but the coaches have done a great job of preparing us for this and we feel good right now.''
Junior Cooper Garrison scored 14 points and freshman Jessee Eklund 13 for Trinity.
Hayden will be back in action at 7:30 p.m. Friday, facing tournament host Emporia.
HAYDEN BOYS 69, TRINITY ACADEMY 53
Trinity 15 8 16 14 -- 53
Hayden 15 11 30 13 -- 69
Trinity (0-1) -- Shaffer 1-6 0-0 2, Collier 3-9 2-4 8, Moore 2-4 0-0 4, Garrison 6-11 1-2 14, Zimmerman 3-7 0-0 8, Henning 0-0 0-0 0, Draper 0-0 0-0 0, Eklund 5-8 0-0 13, Womack 2-4 0-0 4, Koster 0-1 0-0 0, Rodriguez 0-1 0-0 0, Willson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-51 3-6 53.
Hayden (1-0) -- Colboch 7-11 2-2 22, Charvat 2-4 3-5 7, Ridley 4-9 3-3 11, Mitchell 3-4 2-3 8, Grace 1-4 0-1 2, Heinen 0-1 0-0 0, Deister 3-5 0-0 7, Becker 0-4 0-0 0, Hanika 0-4 1-2 1, Kidd 2-4 0-0 4, Kuta 3-4 0-0 7. Totals 25-54 11-16 69.
3-point goals -- Trinity 6 (Eklund 3, Zimmerman 2, Garrison), Hayden 8 (Colboch 6, Deister, Kuta). Total fouls -- Trinity 14, Hayden 10. Fouled out – none.
