Sickness can't stop Hutcheson, Electrics
DRESDEN – Kara Hutcheson may as well have been moonlighting as a model for NyQuil last week.
Philo's senior guard spent much of the days leading into Saturday's Division II sectional final game against Dover fighting the effects of a nasty cold, one bad enough to miss two days of school.
Somehow she rediscovered the force.
Hutcheson, a junior guard, hit two timely second-half 3-pointers during a big second-half run that broke the game open, helping the Electrics secure a 54-36 win in a Division II sectional final at Tri-Valley High School. The win gets Philo to Thursday's district championship game and a date with defending state champion West Holmes.
Hutcheson had only eight points, five less than her average, but the fact she was playing at all inspired her teammates.
"She was not healthy (Friday) and not real healthy again today," coach Danny Hilty said. "But the kind of competitor she is, there wasn't anything that was going to keep her out of that game. That's just the kind of kid she is."
She spent most of the week unable to eat or drink.
"It seems like I haven't been moving all week," Hutcheson said. "I knew I needed to get my energy back."
She found it at the perfect time. Her only field goals and all six of her second-half points were 3-pointers during an 18-5 run in the second half, the latter of which turned a two-point deficit into a 37-27 lead with 5:16 left.
Philo's lead was never less than 10 the rest of the game
The win sent the Electrics to back-to-back district tournaments for the first time since 1999-2000, when Heather Harris led Kevin Krier's squad to the Division II state tournament.
"To do that is huge for these kids and this program," Hilty said. "We still have a lot of younger players."
One of them is freshman guard Destiny Hutcheson, Kara's little sister, who scored six of her game-high 16 points during the decisive run.
She was also 5-of-7 at the free-throw line in the final two minutes, effectively salting the game away.
"The last five or six games she's really started to figure out how to play on the varsity level," Hilty said. "A lot is gaining confidence. We're just seeing the tip of the iceberg."
Between the two sisters and the defensive prowess of senior forward Corrie Burkhart and senior Emily Coakley — Burkhardt had six steals after the first quarter — even a heartfelt effort from a determined group of Tornadoes failed to keep pace.
Dover had 14 turnovers after halftime and 22 after the first quarter, when it hit all four of its 3s and took a 12-8 lead after eight minutes.
The Tornadoes led 17-12 in the second quarter after sophomore Zoey Wisintainer's 3 from the corner, but their issues with the Electrics' full-court pressure were too much to overcome.
Burkhardt, who also scored 14 points, was the force behind it. When she wasn't getting loose balls as a trapper in the press, she was tracking errant passes in the Electrics' matchup zone.
Hilty called her "a great instinctual defensive player."
"We knew we had to pick it up," Burkhardt said. "We knew if we were going to win, we had to pick up our defense."
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