For the first time in school history, the girls state basketball championship is coming to Hinton.
The third-ranked Blackhawks secured their first-ever state title with a narrow 48-46 win over Central Lyon on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
Addison Glass got the offense rolling with the first five points of the game. After the game, she said the game was a defining moment for the team.
Head coach Matt Leary has been coaching high school girls basketball for 23 years. The win was his first-ever state title as a coach. He says he was so proud of how his team responded to adversity in the first half.
Hinton took a 22-19 deficit into the locker room at the half signifying their third halftime deficit of the tournament. Sydney Doeschot had seven points at the half, and she says some girls just needed a little bit of encouragement to fire them up for the second half.
Coach Leary says that the fire that was ignited at the half was better than any halftime speech he could have delivered.
Hinton raced out to the lead to open the second half thanks to a 7-0 run to open the third quarter. The Blackhawk lead grew to 11 at the end of a 19-7 third quarter. Addison Glass had a hand in that run with a few threes as part of a 14-point night. She says she knew she had to have an impact after a quiet first two games.
Karlyn Kovarna’s defense came up big during that stretch as she finished the night with three steals and 10 rebounds. She says she enjoys having an impact on the game in more ways than scoring points.
After taking an 11-point lead in the third, Central Lyon kept clawing back into the game. The Lions worked it down to a four-point lead late in the fourth quarter and eventually got it down to two in the final seconds. Coach Leary says he knew the Lions would not go down without a fight.
Central Lyon ended up with the ball out of bounds under the basket with three seconds left and down two points. The inbounded went to Ayda Vander Zee’s whose game-winning attempt from three-point land was blocked by Sydney Doeschot. Doeschot says it took a last-second adjustment to the gameplan that allowed her to block the shot.
The opportunity was going to be the only one Central Lyon would get. Coach Leary says the Blackhawks were very disciplined in their assignments to make the stop.
After the shot was blocked, the buzzer went off and Hinton was a state champion at last. Immediately after the game, Kovarna said the feeling still had not sunk in that they were the last one standing.
Glass says the entire season had a goal of hoisting the state championship trophy, and she says the feeling is amazing.
It felt like the entire town of Hinton was in Des Moines for the championship game. Doeschot says winning the championship for this community is very special.
The Blackhawks had been close before, and no one knew that better than Coach Leary. Three appearances in the early 2000s came close to the title, but none came closer than the runner-up finish in 2002. Coach Leary says many alums of the program stayed in touch with the Hinton program and expressed their gratitude to this year’s team for getting on top.
The Blackhawks end the season with a final record of 26-0. They are the first Class 2A team to go undefeated as a champion since Dike-New Hartford in 2020-2021.
Two Blackhawks were named to the Class 2A All-Tournament Team. Karlyn Kovarna and Sydney Doeschot who was also named the captain of the All-Tournament Team and Top Performer of the Class 2A State Championship Game.
