Millennium girls basketball coach Courtland Rojeck figured his underclassmen-dominated team had two ways to go on Tuesday night.

Not realize who they were playing and give defending big-school champ Hamilton a battle or find they weren't ready for prime time.

That second option came true as Hamilton played like a state champion in defeating Millennium, 55-28, at Hamilton High. Hamilton limited Millennium to 20 percent shooting from the field in the first half and gave up just one field goal in the second period.

"That's the best weve played so far this season," Hamilton coach Trevor Neider said after watching his team move to 8-0. "I challenged our seniors. Told them to take advantage of their experience and not let a team with a lot of freshman and sophomores come here and beat them."

Millennium (4-1) fell behind 6-0 in the first 90 seconds of the game, but managed to pull within 12-8 after one quarter. The Tigers hung around until the middle of the second period when Hamilton put the hammer down. With two minutes left in the second quarter a managable deficit had reached 27-13. Iit was 27-14 at intermission.

Junior guard Maddie Frederick, who scored 12 of her 17 points in the first half, got a bunch of those points in transition. The second-quarter run that proved Millennium's undoing was hastened by a three-point play by senior Courtney Colleary, layups by seniors Maya Banks and Hannah White and a pair of putbacks by senior sixth-man Cardi Harris.

Things didn't improve for Millennium in the second half. Hamilton's lead reached 46-21 after three periods and with a couple ticks more than five minutes left a running clock was initiated for the duration as the margin reached 30. 

"If there was one thing I was disappointed in it was we didn't come out being more physical," Rojeck said. "We have things to fix and there's a lot of time. As the game went on we looked intimidated.....

"This is a good measuring stick. It's only December and I expect we'll get better."

Rojeck harkened back to two years ago when his team lost a December contest with Desert Vista by more than 30 points. They bounced back to knock off Desert Vista by 10 in the state semifinals.

"Eght of our 12 players are freshmen and sophmores," Rojeck said. "We are young. But once December's over I don't consider our freshmen freshmen anymore."

Harris was the only other Hamilton player to reach double figures, netting 10 points. Banks added eight points and Colleary and White six points each.

Millennium's leading scorer, sophomore Dominque Phillips, led the Tigers with 9 points -- half her season average.