Hubbard outbattles Cards, 48-39

By Pete Mollica

The Eagles went nearly 11 minutes without scoring a field goal and won anyway.

HUBBARD — When your team goes nearly 11 minutes without scoring a field goal and scores just one point in one of the four quarters you would hardly expect a victory, but those things didn’t really concern Hubbard High head coach Rick Fox.

Fox’s Eagles (5-1) were down 25-15 at halftime here Tuesday night to Canfield, but turned around and held Canfield to just two points in the third quarter on their way to a 48-39 victory here.

“We were down by 15 points last week against Howland and came back and won the game by four,” said Fox. “This group just never gives up and seems to come through when they need to.”

Fox said the Eagles really didn’t do anything different in the third quarter except play better.

“We came in at halftime down by 10 points and we didn’t do any yelling or anything,” he said. “We just told them that we missed a ton of shots in that half and we had to start making them. We also told them that we need to pressure their guards more and came out and held them to two points. It was a heck of an effort.”

Both teams shot the ball very well in the first quarter, while the Cardinals (3-2), led by Casey Carroll, who scored Canfield’s first eight points and 13 of its first 15 managed to take an 18-14 lead.

Hubbard didn’t score the final 1:50 of the first quarter and then went 0-for-9 from the field in the second quarter and didn’t score its next field goal until 5:12 remaining in the third quarter.

“We made one field goal in the third quarter, it was just a terrible effort on our part,” said Canfield head coach John Cullen. “We had the opportunity to break the game wide open in the second quarter holding them to without a field goal, but we managed just seven points.”

“Give Hubbard credit, they did the job against us,” Cullen added.

The Eagles were sparked by junior Kurtis Drummond in the second half as he scored 13 of his game-high 18 points and sparked the comeback.

“Kurtis has been our go-to guy all season long and he came up with another outstanding effort tonight,” added Fox. “We also got a great second half out of Corey Farcas.”

Canfield came out red-hot to start the game, hitting 8 of its first 14 shots from the field. Carroll was 6-of-8 and had 13 of his team-high 17 points in the opening quarter.

But in the second quarter both teams went cold from the field as Hubbard missed all nine shots it took and also committed eight turnovers. Canfield wasn’t much better. going 3-of-15 from the field, but the Cardinals only turned the ball over twice.

The Eagles opened the third quarter with a 15-0 run to take a 30-25 lead. The Cardinals didn’t score until Carroll connected with 50 seconds left in the quarter, but the Eagles held a 32-27 advantage.

Canfield opened the final quarter with a 7-3 run that cut Hubbard’s lead to one point, 35-34, but the Eagles quickly pulled back in control as Farcas scored six of his eight points to give Hubbard a 45-38 advantage. Hubbard made five of seven free throws in the final minute of play to clinch the victory.