Soaring to the Top: Horace GBB Sits at 16-1 this season

HORACE GIRL'S BASKETBALL IS UNBEATEN (13-0) IN EASTERN DAKOTA CONFERENCE PLAY.

HORACE, N.D. (KVRR) –The Horace Hawks are atop the standings in the Eastern Dakota Conference with just three conference games to go.

“We are playing well,” said head coach Brent Hintz. “I think we’re playing, for the most part, like we expected. We brought everybody back from last year’s team and so we kind of felt like we could hit the ground running a little bit.”

And hit the ground running they have. Through 13 conference games, the Hawks are a perfect 13-0. Overall, the team sits at 16-1. After reaching state a season ago in just their second varsity season as a program, not winning at all brought this group into this season with more motivation to reach new heights.

“We all got to experience that and learn from that,” said freshman guard Lakyn Donnelly, who played with the Hawks in 7th and 8th grade. “We’re definitely disappointed, but I think we learned a lot. Coming into this season, I think we are definitely a lot more hungry.”

Sophomore forward Jordan Christofferson added, “From the beginning of the year we’ve just been like just on each other. Just getting each other better. We know what we’re capable of and we know that we’re gonna push until we can get to the end or get to that state championship, obviously, which is the goal. [The loses late last season] really did feed our hunger for this season.”

The Hawks boast the EDC’s top scoring offense by over 13 points (77.9 PPG) and a strong defense that has led them to beating their opponents by an average margin of over 27 points. The trio of senior Jaiden Haile (23.1 PPG), sophomore Jordan Christofferson (13.4 PPG) and freshman Lakyn Donnelly (19.7 PPG) are all in the top 10 in scoring and combined average over 56 points per game.

“First of all, it shows just how much we’re sharing the basketball,” said coach Hintz. “That’s been an emphasis for us the last couple years is, you know, run the offense, let the ball move, let the ball decide who gets to shoot on that possession. I think they bought into that most of the time, and we’re able to have a really good balance of inside-outside, and that’s one of the goals because, you know, if you have that, it makes you really difficult to defend.”

Despite now being in just their third varsity season for athletics, football won the school’s first title in the fall, and the girls basketball team hopes to follow suit.

“It’s definitely great momentum to have for school spirit,” said senior forward Jaiden Haile. “You know, we have a lot of Hawk pride here at Horace. I think it definitely gave us, not necessarily more belief, but just more emphasis so that, you know, we can definitely do it. “It’ll just be a great builder, to go back to back for football and basketball, that’d be pretty sweet.”

Horace hosts Shanley Tuesday night, February 11.