No TAC at stake, but Champion, Eagles play hard

Missing inside shots hurt Hubbard in a 68-62 loss.

By DOUG CHAPIN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

HUBBARD — Though both teams were eliminated from the Trumbull Athletic Conference race earlier this week, you couldn’t tell that from the way the boys basketball teams from Champion High and Hubbard High went after it Friday night.

Both teams attempted more than 60 shots as they played uptempo from the start. Champion (13-5, 7-5 TAC) used a 7-2 edge in the final minute to pull out a 68-62 victory.

“Hubbard had only lost one league game at home, to Newton Falls, and that was a close game,” Champion coach Dan Bubon said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

“It was their senior night, they’ve got tough kids who have been in the program, and they didn’t want to lose this game. So we had to just hang in and pull it out. We made enough good decisions and enough foul shots to win.”

The Golden Flashes raced out to a 19-6 lead before settling for a 19-10 first-quarter lead.

“Again we came out slow,” Hubbard coach Rick Fox said. “We’ve just got to come out from the tip and play.

“We put all our energy into fighting back and we were too tired at the end. It showed at the line, we missed some free throws, and we missed some layups inside. You’re not going to win games when you miss shots in there.”

Hubbard (11-7, 7-5 TAC) took a brief lead in the second quarter at 27-25, but the Flashes were back on top 34-31 at halftime. Champion opened a 49-36 lead in the third period and led 51-43 as the final quarter began.

The Eagles tied the game at 57-57 and trailed 61-60 with 1:19 left to play. A Kris Wildman hoop with 59 seconds remaining gave Champion a three-point lead, then Hubbard missed two straight inside shots.

Senior guard Joe Cvengros, who led all scorers with 22 points, converted both ends of a one-and-one for a 65-60 lead at the 45-second mark. After a Hubbard basket, Markel Vaughn also converted both ends of a one-and-one with 10 seconds left to all but clinch the game.

The winners shot 42 percent (26-for-62) from the floor and Hubbard’s mark was 38 percent (23-for-60).

Sean Sumner backed Cvengros with 15 points and nine rebounds. Vaughn added 11 points and seven assists, Wildman had eight points and Caleb Wright grabbed 10 rebounds.

Robert Wigfall paced Hubbard with 20 points, Corey Hitt had 16 points and 11 rebounds, Kurtis Drummond contributed 14 points and nine rebounds and Matt Kanetsky dished out 10 assists.

“Everybody emphasizes ‘win the league, win the league, win the league.’ When you’re out of it, there is a little bit of a letdown,” Bubon said. “We’ve been trying to pump up the kids that they have a chance to go 15-5.

“Not many Champion teams in their lifetime have won 15 games. We’ve been trying to tell them this is something to be proud of, winning 15 games. Hopefully, these last games can get us ready for a tournament run.

The Flashes are scheduled to play LaBrae on Feb. 20 in the Division III sectional at Howland.

Hubbard has a first-round bye in the Division II sectional at Boardman. The Eagles will play West Branch or Struthers in the second round.

“We had a big game against Newton Falls last Friday and we didn’t come out on top in that,” Fox said. “You could tell the kids were a little down because one of our goals was to compete for the TAC. These last two games we just came out flat. We’ve got two games left before we go to the tournament and hopefully we can rebound.”