Hubbard holds on for AAC White win

January 26, 2011 at 12:09a.m.

Hubbard

If Rick Fox had any hair left to begin with, he may not have after Tuesday.

It was a long and frustrating night for Hubbard High. But in the end, it was a victorious night. Hubbard managed to hold off Salem for a 78-72 victory to earn its second win in the All-American Conference’s White Tier.

“I told the kids, it’s just the way we are. We’re not going to win pretty; we’re going to win ugly, but I’ll take an ugly win any day,” Fox said.

The Eagles (7-5, 2-2 AAC White) led almost the entire way.

The game had the feel of an NBA shootout early, with both teams scoring more than 20 points in the first quarter. The Eagles put together a 27-point effort while the Quakers (6-5, 1-2) scored 21.

But things cooled down a little after that. Either fatigue kicked in or the adrenaline wore off in the second quarter.

Salem head coach Rich Hart said he knew it wasn’t defense.

“We didn’t play [well] in the first half,” Hart said. “We didn’t play defense, we weren’t aggressive in the first half, and it’s tough to win like that, especially on the road. Not much is going to happen in your favor late in the game, so you have to get things done in both halves. And we only played one half.”

Salem led only once in the first half. The Quakers held a 9-8 margin in the early minutes of the first quarter. They didn’t have another advantage until the 5:54 mark of the fourth quarter.

The Quakers engineered a 22-point third quarter and chipped away at a Hubbard lead that was in the double-digits. Hubbard scored just 13 points, but still led by two entering the final quarter.

“We played like we should play,” Hart said. “We gave up a couple of baskets, and defensively, we needed to make a stop down here. We couldn’t make a stop, and basketball comes down to making stops.”

The Eagles had four players score in the double figures and made 19 trips to the free-throw line, making 13 of them. Salem went 20-of-26 from the line, and also had four players with 10 or more points.

Leading the way for Hubbard was Tyler Duez with 21 points. Duez provided several second-change buckets for Hubbard and gave the Quakers fits all night. Next in line was senior Mike Lopuchovsky with 18, followed by Kory Hopkinson with 14 and Nick Shelton with 12. Six of Shelton’s points came via the charity stripe, where he was perfect.

For Salem, Jake Madison drilled four 3-pointers and went 7-of-8 from the line to finish with a game-high 23 points. Ryan Wolfgang had 17 points while Taylor Frederickson had 14 points and Ryan Bush had 13.

Fox said the run-and-gun offense was by design and knew his team would have to keep the tempo up if they were going to win.

“We watched some film on them and I just told the kids that they were going to run, and that we were going to run with them,” he said.

Lopuchovsky said it felt good to get a conference win and to hold off a tough team at home.

“It was just up and down both ways. We had the momentum for most of the first half, and then in the third quarter and start of the fourth quarter they took it over,” Lopuchovsky said.

Hart said the Quakers defense needs to step up.

Until we’re able to stop somebody when we need to stop somebody, we’re not going to win many,” he said. “These games are all going to be close.”