By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

Tenth-year Ellis prep girls' basketball coach Perry Mick offered plenty of superlatives after Hill City defeated the Railroaders 63-48 in the sub-state championship game Saturday night. Hill City sank 11 3-pointers in the game and shot 39 percent from beyond the arc. All-state junior guard Lexi Hardiek scored 33 points with 7 3s. Mick called Hardiek the best shooter with the quickest release he has ever coached against in his 10 years at Ellis. In addition, Mick was impressed with Hill City's team, which will be at this week's Class 2A state tournament in Manhattan.

"I have never played against a team that is capable of making that many 3s," Mick said.

Mick, though, isn't the only one that has never witnessed a team like Hill City -- the record-breaking Ringnecks and Hardiek are unique in Kansas high school basketball history. Hill City and Hardiek have already broken three state shooting records this season. Hill City is 224-of-585 on 3-pointers for 38 percent; the single-season record for 3-point attempts is 461 by Salina South in 2002, according to the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. The Ringnecks have shot 71 percent from the free throw line (192-of-270), better than Olathe South's 70.4 mark in 1993.

"I can almost guarantee no other team shoots as much as we do just practicing," Hardiek said. "I remember since fifth or sixth grade all of us girls are always in the gym shooting and that's just the key thing."

Helped by the daily repetitions, Hardiek, a returning first team all-area selection and second team Class 2A player, averages 21.5 points and has shot 122-of-268 (46 percent) from beyond the arc. The all-time record for single-season treys is held Moundridge's Laurie Koehn, a former Kansas State University standout, with 110 in 2000.

"She works really hard," Hill City coach Linda Nighswonger said. "I don't know how many thousands of hours she has been in the gym shooting. That is something that she has worked very hard to do. Not many days go by that she's not at the gym on her own shooting. It's just repetition and hard work."

Hardiek's and Hill City's shooting have helped the Ringnecks post a 21-2 record and move into the state tournament for the first time in more than 15 years. The Hill City girls' basketball program has won one state crown, in 1976. This year's team has several connections to the 1976 team; Nighswonger's sister-in-law played on the squad and two current Ringnecks have aunts on the title team. After Hill City defeated Ellis, the fans unfurled a banner that read, "Warm Up the Bus, We're Headed for Manhattan."

"When I looked up there and saw that in the crowd, it gave me the chills," sophomore point guard Kelsey Keith said.

On Wednesday, Hill City, the tournament's No. 2 seed, will face seventh-seeded Blue Rapids-Valley Heights (18-5) at Kansas State University's Bramlage Coliseum. Tipoff is 6:30 p.m. Olpe (23-0), a longtime state powerhouse, is considered the favorite. Mick, whose team defeated Olpe en route to a 2009 state runner-up showing, believes Hill City "has a great shot" to advance deep in the field.

"The thing that is going to hurt Hill City is if they have a cold shooting night and I haven't seen a whole lot of those," Mick said.

Hardiek, who started playing competitively in the third grade, has consistently shot well throughout her career. As a freshman, she averaged 16.6 points per contest, made 58 3s and shot 41 percent from 3-point range for a 10-11 team. Last winter, she improved her numbers to 22.3 points a contest with 103 treys as Hill City won 15 contests. The 5-foot-5 Hardiek is also a three-year starting setter for the Ringneck volleyball team and has qualified for state track both seasons.

"I wouldn't say I am the quickest or the strongest or anything, but I guess you have to overcome that in other areas just by working hard," she said. "I have good teammates and all of my friends, we always work hard together."

Hardiek, who always tries to shoot at least once a day outside of practice, has a basketball goal at home. Hardiek, though, will often go in before school to shoot. Sometimes, she'll return to school after practice and dinner time to shoot again. Hardiek won't put up a certain amount of shots. Sometimes, she'll count made field goals, but she works on ball handling, dribbling, quickness, and her speciality -- shooting the basketball.

"Just pretty much whenever I can," she said. "My coaches are really good about, just whenever I want, they will come up and just rebound for me and come let me in and are just really good about always being willing to help."

Hardiek plays nearly year-round, including on an AAU team and an elite traveling squad last summer that included Ellis' Whitney Taylor, currently at Fort Hays State University, and Thomas More Prep-Marian's Kaylee Hoffman, a University of Wyoming signee.

"It's just really fun to play with girls that are that much better than you," Hardiek said. "They make you better."

This season, Hardiek has increased her range, confidence and shooting percentage. She is the focal point of every's team's defense, but she can hit shots from anywhere on the floor. Hardiek, who said "most of the time I don't even know where I am on the court," has hit treys from the volleyball spike line. Against Ellis, she hit several guarded shots -- including three second-half 3s in a three-minute stretch to break the game open -- that were 25 feet away from the basket. Ellis put multiple defenders on Hardiek, but nothing worked.

"She had 7 3s (Saturday)," Mick said. "You just don't see that happen very often. It   would be one thing if we were sitting back in a zone and she was open all the time, but those are guarded shots. When she started making those at the end of the third, it was just like, 'Man, she is on a roll and she is not going to miss.' "

Nighswonger, who said her team "will try to shoot as many 3s as possible," allows Hardiek to continually put up shots. Hardiek has four games of at least 30 points in 2009-10, including a season-high 8 3s versus WaKeeney-Trego, Norton and Stockton. Hardiek is first in the nation in made 3s per game (5.2), while Hill City's 9.7 treys per game ranks second in the nation behind Hanford (Calif.), which averages 11.1 per contest, according to maxpreps.com.

"There has been some shots that we go, 'Oh man, probably not that one.' But she shoots from out there all the time in practice and she has a pretty good range, so we try to just trust her and if she feels it, she should just go ahead," Nighswonger said.

Hill City has several strong supporting players, especially Keith, a 5-foot-3 point guard who averages 10.5 points per game and shoots 33 percent on 3-pointers. She leads the team with 3.3 assists and 2.2 steals a contest.

"She is an excellent outside shooter and she is really quick," Mick said. "She is a good player."

Juniors Sheranda Brown and Blair Nickelson have combined for 61 3-pointers and 32 percent from beyond the arc, while senior Kaitlyn Davis (7.3 rebounds) and junior Tayler Money (6.8 rebounds) are the leading post players.

"I feel like if we play as a team we should do pretty good down at state," Keith said.