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Bogan, Lanier lead Howland over Hubbard
By Tim Cleveland
HOWLAND
With Hubbard having put together a 20-2 run to take an 11-point lead in the second quarter against Howland, it looked like the momentum was with the Eagles.
That’s when Reece Bogan stepped up for his team.
Howland’s 6-foot-3 sophomore scored 10 points from that point until the end of the first half, giving the Tigers the lead, with Howland pulling away for a much-needed 58-43 triumph Friday night.
“We just had to be aggressive,” said Bogan, who scored 16 points overall. “We knew we were down. We were going a little too fast for ourselves, so we just had to slow down a little bit and execute and do what we needed to do.”
Howland coach Bill Bogan said Reece stepped up when the Tigers needed him the most.
“I think he just took it upon his shoulders to lead the team back,” Bill Bogan said. “Every team needs somebody like that. Liberty has Asim [Pleas], LaBrae has Peyton [Aldridge]. Not that I’m comparing Reece to any of those guys, but every team needs a guy that they can come down the floor and say, get us a bucket or get us free throws. Reece did a good job of doing that tonight.”
With Howland (3-8, 2-4 All-American Conference, American Division) trailing 23-12 in the second quarter, Reece Bogan scored five consecutive points to bring the Tigers to within 23-20. Later in the quarter, he hit a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 27-26, then he made two free throws to close the 18-4 run and give Howland a 30-27 advantage.
The other eight points during that run were scored by 6-1 junior Julian Lanier, who led Howland with 18 points.
“Julian’s a very, very good shooter,” Bill Bogan said. “We’ve seen flashes of this, and we saw a lot of it in the fall. Tonight, a big night for him stepping up and being consistent throughout the game. Tonight he made shots through the whole game.”
The night was exasperated late in the game for Hubbard (2-6, 1-5), when Brennan Wassil (14 points) collided with Victor Williams with 35.3 seconds left in the game. Wassil stayed down on the court with a left knee injury. He eventually made it to his feet but needed help leaving the court.
“Their trainer said it might be a ligament or something,” Hubbard coach Rick Fox said. “We’ll have our trainer look at it [Saturday] and see what happens.”
Fox said while his team did very well during the 20-2 run, the Eagles were unable to keep things going.
“We moved the basketball, we looked in, we were doing what we wanted to do,” he said. “We have two good players in Brennan and Isiah (Scott). We were doing what we need to do. Second half we wanted to settle and we can’t do that.
“We didn’t work the ball, we made passes that weren’t there, we turned the ball over [18 turnovers]. Same old, same old. We’re averaging 20 turnovers a game. I don’t care who you are, you’re not going to win basketball games when you turn the ball over 20 times.”
Hubbard scored just 16 points in the second half. Fox added missed shots killed the Eagles.
“You’re not going to win games like that,” he said. “I tried to tell the guys they’ve got to find it in them and we’ve got to knock down shots. Until we do that, we’re not going to be successful.”