Basketball: Hinote’s record-pace earns third team all-state honor

Sports Staff

Editor's note: Updated version with the correct Jefferson-Scranton, East Greene and Greene County records. A previous version had listed Trey Hinote as third all-time in scoring. He's actually fourth. 

Trey Hinote’s record-shattering winter has been rewarded with one of the most prestigious honors in the state. 

The Greene County senior and his seemingly limitless three-point range was named to the IPSWA Class 2A all-state third team over the weekend after drilling a school-record 86 three-pointers, shattering the old mark of 68, set by Hinote himself just a season ago. 

The sweet-shooting guard led the Heart of Iowa Conference in scoring at 21.7 points per game, the eighth-best mark in the state. 

Hinote joins Greene County all-time leading scorer Trey Tucker with recent all-state selections, after the 2017 graduate was named to the INA all-state second team thanks to his state-best 24.5 points per game average. 

Hinote’s record pace was punctuated by a single-game Greene County record of 44 points in a win over Saydel, a contest in which he broke his own Greene County mark with nine made three-pointers. 

His 86 three-pointers in 20 games, which boiled down to a mind-numbing 4.3 makes per contest, was the second-best total in 2A behind Iowa City Regina’s Masen Miller, who drilled 99 long balls in 23 games. Hinote shot 35.7 percent from three on 241 attempts while knocking down 84 percent of his free throws.  

The Dordt commit broke two of Tucker’s short-lived school records this winter, the single-game scoring mark as well as the career three-point total, which stood at 196 before the 2018-19 campaign began. Hinote easily surpassed that mark in the early weeks of the season, finishing his four year career with 269 three-pointers made, an average of 66 long balls per season. 

Hinote wrapped up his Ram career second all-time in Greene County history with 1,339 points, which is fourth all-time in the combined Jefferson-Scranton, East Greene and Greene County record books, behind Tucker (1,811), Adam Jones (1,538) and Jim Kennedy (1,494). Kennedy starred at East Greene High School from 1979-83, helping guide the Hawks to the school’s only state tournament appearance in 1982. 

Hinote was joined on the all-state teams by fellow Heart of Iowa Conference all-staters Conner Hill, South Hamilton (first team), PCM’s Andrew VanRyswyk (second) and South Hamilton’s Logan Peters (third). 

The state’s leading scorer, Ben Heeren of Ogden, was named to the first team as well. The senior averaged 26.5 points per game while drilling shots at a 62.3 percent clip, torching Greene County for 40 points and 16 rebounds in the season-opener, a 96-91 Ram win. 

Greene County finished 7-16 during the 2018-19 season, losing their last four games and 10 of their last 12, finishing league play with a 3-10 record, good for a distant seventh place. 

The Iowa Print Sports Writers Association named Bettendorf’s D.J. Carton and North Linn’s Jake Hilmer as co-Mr. Basketball after a tie in voting.

Carton, an Ohio State University signee, averaged 24.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game for Bettendorf. The Bulldogs, ranked No. 1 in Class 4A by the Associated Press at the end of the regular season, finished the year 21-2 with losses to state runner-up Dubuque Senior and fourth place North Scott. Carton poured in a career-high 49 points in a regular-season win over Davenport West.

With more than 25 Division I offers, the 6-foot-2 point guard is a five-star prospect and ranks among the top 30 recruits in the country for the 2019 class. A three-year starter and a first team all-stater the past two seasons by the IPSWA, Carton scored a school-record 1,198 career points along with snagging 372 rebounds and dishing out 257 assists. The Bulldogs played in one state tournament and won 49 games in his three years.

Hilmer capped a brilliant four-year career by guiding North Linn to the Class 2A state championship. The Lynx went 102-4 in his career, with a first-place state finish in addition to a second and a third.

Hilmer averaged 26.1 points per game (2nd in Class 2A), shooting 57.8 percent from the field. He led the state with 263 assists. The 5-foot-11 Upper Iowa University basketball and football commit set state records for most single-season assists and steals and career assists and steals. He is the only player in state history to surpass 2,000 career points (2,332) and 1,000 career assists (1,106).

It is the first time since 1999 that two players have shared Mr. Basketball honors. That year, Sioux City West’s Kirk Hinrich and Iowa Falls’ Nick Collison shared the title. Both went on to play for the University of Kansas and later in the NBA. Collison is set to have his jersey retired by the Oklahoma City Thunder prior to their March 20 contest against the Toronto Raptors.