Hubbard’s free throws sink Lakeview, 55-44

The Eagles made nine of 10 from the line in the final minutes of the contest.

By DOUG CHAPIN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

HUBBARD — Rarely in basketball does one see such a startling difference in shooting statistics as those recorded Friday night in Hubbard High’s 55-44 Trumbull Athletic Conference victory over Lakeview.

The Eagles (6-2, 2-0 TAC) shot 62.5 percent from the field (20-of-32 overall, 5-of-8 on 3-pointers), compared to the Bulldogs’ woeful 30 percent (18-of-60 overall, 2-of-23 on 3-pointers).

You read that correctly. Lakeview (4-3, 1-1) had more missed 3-point shots than Hubbard had field goal makes.

Even so, it took a 9-for-10 performance at the foul line in the final minute and a half for the Eagles to clinch the victory.

“We could have played a little bit better, but our kids didn’t give up, they played hard,” Hubbard coach Rick Fox said. “All year we’d build up a nice lead then kind of relax and let teams back in. We want to develop that killer instinct and put teams away.

“Give Lakeview credit, their kids fought back hard. We made that one nice push going into the fourth quarter to put it a little bit out of reach.”

The Eagles led 35-31 before senior Marc Kanetsky nailed a step-back 3-pointer just before the third quarter buzzer. He then drained another shot from behind the arc off a feed from Bobby Thompson less than a minute into the final quarter. That made the score 41-31 and Lakeview could get no closer than seven after that.

Kanetsky tallied 13 points, Matt Lopuchovsky had 12, Kurtis Drummond 10 (including 6-of-6 from the line down the stretch) and Corey Hitt nine. Drummond and Kanetsky dished out four assists apiece and Thompson grabbed seven rebounds.

Hubbard led 17-11 after one quarter and stretched it to 22-11 at one point, before taking a 27-25 lead into halftime.

“We talked coming into the game that we wanted this to be a physical basketball game,” Lakeview coach George Lanterman said. “Hubbard has a lot of great athletes and we knew they would be tough covers and we knew they’ve got some kids who can score. We wanted to try to keep it under 50 points. I thought for the most part after the first quarter we played solid defense.”

Though Hubbard shot well, the Eagles had numerous possessions on which they never got off a shot. Lakeview recorded seven steals and forced 13 Hubbard turnovers.

But it was on the other end of the floor where the contest was decided. Fox said the key for the Eagles was to stop Lakeview’s senior guard Jon Kittle.

“We scouted them and saw some game film and we saw that their offense runs through Kittle,” Fox said. “We tried to keep him away and force one of the other guards to start the offense. We had three guys we ran at him and I think we did a nice job to keep the offense out of his hands.”

Lanterman gave credit to the Eagles when discussing his team’s offensive struggles.

“I think a lot of that had to do with Hubbard’s defense,” he said. “They were bumping our cutters and faceguarding Jon Kittle and trying to keep the ball out of his hands. They had a good game plan. I know we didn’t shoot the ball well, but I think we had a lot of open looks. We just weren’t knocking them down tonight, and that’s basketball.”

Kittle finished with nine points and four steals. Greg McCumber had 10 points and six rebounds and Robert Franks recorded seven points, four assists and seven rebounds. Jarred Clark added seven points and Justin Clark had six points and four assists.