Mpls.South star basketball player threatened before championship game
(AP) - Police are investigating telephone threats made against Minneapolis South basketball star Tayler Hill before the Class 4A state championship game against St. Paul Central High School.
Hill, the Associated Press girls' basketball player of the year, said she received threatening messages on her phone from a number with the 651 area code. Police said Wednesday they had the full number and were trying to trace the calls.
"They basically said they were going to break her legs and find her before the game," said Tayler's mother, Monique Hill.
While high school sports rivalries can be intense, the mother said the threats were graphic and definitely not a joke.
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"Whenever you threaten to kill somebody, that's not a prank," she said.
The messages started coming late Friday, before Saturday's night's big game.
"They called back at 4 a.m. and said that they're about to kill me and shoot me and that I don't deserve anything that I've been doing," Tayler Hill said.
Hill has been playing for the Tigers since eighth grade, when she scored more than 20 points a game to take them to the state tournament. She has already scored more than 2,800 points in her career and is the hottest recruit to come out of Minnesota in years.
"Everybody wants to go to the championship, but they went to the extreme with it," she said of the calls.
Hill, a junior guard, averaged nearly 23 points per game this season. On Saturday, she managed nine, but said the 49-44 loss to St. Paul Central wasn't due to the threats. Central held her in check with its aggressive defense.
"I wasn't thinking about it at the game. The game was the game, and that was it," she said.
The Minneapolis Public Schools issued a statement saying the safety of students at or away from school is their top priority.
"We understand that this incident is under investigation by police, and we will certainly be cooperating fully with law enforcement officials as they investigate this matter," the statement said.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)