It was Tournament Time ... Holiday style ... for both the girls & boys cagers this past week! The boys were in action over at Wheeler and the Lady Brickies got to play the role of host for a 1-day, winner-take-all event!
GirlsOn Wednesday, Hobart hosted the Holiday Hoopfest for the 1st time! Our girls were supposed to host this event last winter, but a COVID pause kept our girls out. This time around, COVID held both Griffith and Whiting out of the tournament ... so a round-robin format was used to determine the winner between Bishop Noll, Hebron, and the Lady Brickies.
In the 1st game, Hobart faced the Bishop Noll Lady Warriors. Noll jumped out to an early 7-0 lead, but the Lady Brickies battle back and held a slim 21-19 advantage at the end of the high scoring 1st quarter. In the 2nd, the blistering pace continued ... only it was the Warriors who carried a 40-35 edge into the halftime locker room. The final 16 minutes were CRAZY INTENSE as Hobart rallied every single time it appeared that Noll might run away for a win. After trailing the entire 2nd half, our girls fought all the way back ... and with just 52 seconds remaining in the contest, junior Asia Donald BURIED a step-back 3 from the top to tie things up at 72!! Senior Amarea Donald and sophomore Jesse Neace each hit 1 of two FTs to put Hobart up 74-72!! A desperation play from Noll in the final seconds did not yield a shot attempt and the Lady Brickies WON A THRILLER!! The Donald sisters combined for 45 points (Asia - 32, Amarea - 13), junior Niko Latinovic added 12 and Neace finished with 9 in the win!
In the 2nd game, Hobart battled Hebron ... and a victory for the Lady Brickies would mean a tournament title. The opening quarter was nearly a repeat of the Bishop Noll game in that Hebron jumped out to a 10-point lead at 16-6. Our girls never panicked ... held their composure ... and fought back again to take a 33-25 lead into the break. No crazy intensity followed in the 2nd half as Hobart controlled the final 16 minutes of play and earned a SWEET VICTORY by a 57-41 final score!! Asia led all scorers with 18 in the championship and was backed up by her sister Amarea (9 points), Neace (9 points) and senior Melanie Leonard (8 points)!
The CHAMPIONSHIP was the 1st for the Lady Brickies since the 2014-2015 season when our girls won the Hanover Central Holiday Tournament! CONGRATULATIONS LADIES!!!
Hobart is now 7-7 overall with roughly 1 month remaining before the IHSAA post-season tournament begins! Keep up the GREAT WORK WORK WORK ladies!!!
#SHEGOTGAME
Boys
On Tuesday, the Brickies were at Wheeler High School, where they previously won Holiday Tournament Championships back in 2004, 2005 and 2007 ... Coach Brown was actually a starter and key contributor on both the '04 & '05 squads!
This year, our boys faced an undefeated (6-0) Lake Station team in the 11:30am game. In a 1st half that more resembled a track meet than a basketball game at times, the Eagles held a 40-34 lead over the Brickies. Hobart came out of the locker room FIRED UP and started the 3rd quarter on a 6-2 run to cut the Lake Station advantage to just 2 points at 42-40! Unfortunately, the Eagles bounced back with 8 consecutive points and eventually extended their lead to 12 (57-45) heading into the final period of play. After falling behind by as many as 15, our boys KEPT PLAYING and BATTLED BACK ... cutting the Eagles lead to just 7 (57-64) with 3:30 still remaining!! Ultimately, that's as close as the Bricks would get as Lake Station held on and won 74-65. It was a GREAT EFFORT by our boys against a good team. Hobart put 4 scorers in double figures against the Eagles - senior Miki Djankovich led the team with 17 points ... classmate Josh Tejeda scored 15 ... junior Keith Mullins had a monster double-double with 15 points and 16 rebounds ... and freshman Noah Ehrlich added 10 points to go with a team-high 5 assists.
The Eagles went on to defeat North Newton in the championship to secure the tournament title and remain undefeated on the year at 8-0.
In the consolation game Tuesday night, the Brickies squared off against the host Bearcats. It was all Wheeler in the 1st quarter as the Bearcats grabbed an early double-digit lead. Hobart responded with some outstanding D-D-D-DEFENSE and timely shooting to gain control by halftime and cruised in the 2nd half to earn the impressive 75-56 VICTORY!! Once again, it was Djankovich (20 pts, 7 rebs), Mullins (18 pts), Ehrlich (13 pts, 6 assts) & Tejeda (10 pts) who did the most damage offensively for the Brickies in the win!
Hobart is now 4-4 on the season and 1-0 in NCC action! Our boys will be in action twice this week in The Friendly City - LET'S GO BRICKS!!
#RISETOTHEOCCASION
