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Lowellville spoils Hubbard’s Senior Night
HUBBARD
When it’s Senior Night, whether for the home team or the visitors, who should do the talking?
The seniors, of course.
One player representing Hubbard’s seniors was Brenden Candella, who had a team-high 13 points in the Eagles’ 49-38 loss to Lowellville in a regular season-ending game for both schools.
Lowellville (17-5) has won 14 of its last 15 games.
“We always play hard — you can’t ever fault our team for that,” said Candella, who was a perfect example when he made four field goals in a short span to close Lowellville’s lead to 30-28 and then 32-30.
“We play hard and try to do our thing out there, but don’t make shots all the time.”
Candella attributed Hubbard’s lack of point production to missed shots, especially at the foul line where the Eagles made 3 of 4 to Lowellville’s 12 of 21.
“We didn’t hit shots when we needed to. We cut it down to two several times, but could never get over the hump,” he said of battling back, including the last time at 38-36 on Brett Lopuchovsky’s putback. “We couldn’t get that extra stop that we needed to get the lead or tie the game,” Candella said.
Next, Hubbard (5-17) opens Division II tournament play at Ursuline on Tuesday.
“We’re not backing down from anybody,” Candella said. “We know what kind of team they are, but we’re going to go out there, compete and, hopefully, pull off an upset.”
Two Lowellville seniors who had key roles were Tyler Barone and Vince Hensperger, both of whom gave extra effort on separate plays.
Early in the third quarter, Barone saved the ball from going out of bounds or into the hands of a Hubbard player before flipping it to Lowellville teammate Vito Bell, who went in for a layup.
“I was coming down court and lost my handle on the ball, so I poked it out and then grabbed it, then saw Vito come to the hoop,” Barone said. “I figured that if I could get it to him, he could get a layup and he finished like I knew he would.”
Overall, Barone’s good ball-handling and being in position for defensive rebounds was a testament that he was on a mission.
“I pride myself on my rebounding and getting most of my points from offensive rebounds, especially when our big guy [Cole Beatty] went down. That’s when I took it upon myself to go up and get the boards.”
Barone had 12 points and 13 rebounds and Hensperger added 10 points, but Beatty also scored a dozen before seeing sparse action in the second half due to injury.
Hensperger’s heroics came late in the game after Davion Daniels stripped the ball from Hensperger at midcourt, then dribbled toward the Hubbard hoop for what appeared to be an easy layup.
Hensperger, however, caught up to the speedy Daniels and ripped the ball from Daniels’ control as he floated skyward.
“Coach says, ‘If you mess up, you gotta get back on defense,’ so I just chased him down because that was a big play. He had a good rip and I just chased him down and got a piece of it. We had miscommunication, then I heard Tyler [Barone] say, ‘Go get him,’ so I chased him down, hoping I wouldn’t foul him and it worked out.”
Hensperger said that Lowellville, as a D-4 school, prides itself by making a good showing against a D-2 school like Hubbard.
“I knew it was their Senior Night and it’s an awful way to go out, but, because they’re good competition, I think we did a good job handling ourselves out there.”
Lowellville coach Vince Nittoli explained that Beatty may have hit his head after slamming on the floor after being accidentally flipped.
At the outset of the second half, Beatty attempted an alley-oop move around Lopuchovsky, but the play never materialized properly.
“I think he hit his head, but he went to the hospital to get checked out for a concussion, which is protocol,” said Nittoli, Lowellville’s second-year coach. “I think he’ll be OK, but it’s too early to tell right now.”