Girls and Boys Basketball doubled the fun this past week with two games each ... 1 on the road and 1 in front of the hometown fans. As the girls approach the midway mark of the winter season, the boys are FINALLY underway! If you didn't get out to see either of them this week, shame on you - these kids can play!
GirlsOn Tuesday night, the Lady Brickies hosted Illiana Christian in non-conference action. Early on, the game went back-and-forth and after 8 minutes, Hobart led 12-10. The battle continued throughout the 2nd quarter with neither team able to gain much advantage until right before the half when the Lady Brickies mounted a small run and went into the locker room up 26-21!
Coach Feddeler must've delivered a Knute Rockne - Win one for the Gipper type of halftime speech because Hobart was a different team in the 2nd half! Our girls were PRESSURING on D-D-D-DEFENSE, which led to EASY BUCKETS on the other end and the Lady Brickies BLEW OPEN what was once a close game! In the end, Hobart CRUISED to a 59-36 VICTORY!! Freshman PHENOM Asia Donald led all scorers with 19 points and sophomore teammate Claudia Torrico-Ledesma added a career-high 17 points for Hobart in the win.
Friday, Hobart again played the role of host, but this time it was the #8-ranked KV Kougars who came north to the Friendly City. A year ago, KV handed the Lady Brickies an ugly 76-22 loss and went on to win the Class 4A Sectional title. This year, KV came in with a record of 8-3 looking for another "easy one", but Hobart would have NO PART of that! The Lady Brickies came out FIRED UP and CHALLENGED the Lady Kougars on every catch! The D-D-D-DEFENSE was OUTSTANDING and after 1 quarter, KV clung to an 8-6 lead. The 2nd quarter featured more of the same as Hobart mounted a run that put our girls in the LEAD up until a buzzer-beater gave KV a 19-18 halftime advantage. Over the next 16 minutes, as much as the Lady Brickies FOUGHT and CLAWED and DUG with EVERYTHING they had, the Kougars were able to inch further and further away ... particularly in the 4th quarter ... and handed Hobart a tough 53-34 loss. In a game that was MUCH CLOSER than the final score, the Lady Brickies were led by senior Grace Nestich - who was all over the place - with 15 points. Nestich was joined in double figures by freshman Asia Donald with 12.
Hobart is currently 6-4 on the season and 0-2 in NCC play. Two more tough ones this week ... @ Portage on Wednesday and home vs. Andrean on Saturday ... will help our girls gear up for the Hanover Central Wildcat Winter Classic over the holidays.
Boys
Tuesday night over at Portage, the boys cagers opened their 2019-2020 season against the Indians. It was an offensive struggle throughout the first half as both teams asserted themselves with some stingy D-D-D-DEFENSE and Portage held a slim lead at the halftime break. In the 3rd quarter, the Brickies continued to lock down defensively, but it seemed as if someone over at Portage put a lid on the basket. Hobart worked HARD and got GOOD looks, we just couldn't find the bottom of the net and the Indians were finally able to extend the lead and ultimately defeated our boys 46-25. Senior Tyler Schultz led the way with 8 points and 3 steals on the night. Classmate Sean UNNNNDERDAHL chipped in 6 points and joined Schultz and his brother Trevor with a team-high 4 rebounds.
Silent night ... Holy night ... All is calm ... All is CRAZY WHEN THE BRICKIES SCORED THEIR 8th POINT on SILENT NIGHT!! On Saturday, Hobart hosted Hammond Gavit in the 9th annual SILENT NIGHT game. Senior backcourt mates Tyler Schultz and Caleb Banjoff each drained 3's to open the scoring for Hobart. Classmate Elliot Harrison hit one of two FT's to bring the Brickies to 7 ... and when Schultz BURIED another 3, Yohan's Army ERUPTED into celebration!! The 1st half was ALL BRICKIES as our boys controlled the defensive glass and executed well against the Gladiator D to get open looks both inside and out. The lead grew to almost 30 points early in the 3rd quarter before Gavit mounted a ridiculous comeback thanks to some unconscious shooting from behind the arc. Still, the result was NEVER in doubt as Hobart continued attacking and DELIVERED a SILENT NIGHT VICTORY by the final score of 73-64!! Once again it was Schultz who led the Brickies in scoring with a season-high 28 points! Banjoff tallied 17 and sophomore Miki Djankovich came off the bench and added 8 to help secure the 'W'.
The boys are 1-1 on the year and will be ON THE ROAD AGAIN (thank you Willie Nelson) with two more contests this week ... @ Morgan Township on Tuesday and @ Lowell to open NCC play on Friday. GOOD LUCK BOYS!
#RISETOTHEOCCASION
