St. Vincent-St. Mary handles undefeated Hoban in 'Holy War' 51-43

 

(Gene Simmons - Ohsfbmedia.com)

By Gene Simmons | X.COM

AKRON, Ohio--The Irish came into JAR Arena with a mission, playing in the Akron 'Holy War' defeating an undefeated Hoban team by staying in the driver's seat using the bench for the majority of the game resulting in a 51-43 win.  

After losing the tip to Hoban in front of a good crowd on a cold and snow night, went into a back and forth battle just a few minutes into the quarter, the Irish would start a fiery run that would last the latter part of the first and leading into the second quarter.

The Irish would start the run at the 3:30 mark going on a 6-0 run off baskets by senior John Whorton and help from junior DeCarlo Prince.

"John's the key, we gotta be able to give him the ball to win," said Prince.

"You know Hoban was the number one team in the state, we had to come with some intensity," said Whorton.

The run would continue down the stretch of the first and opening up the second as that run would expand to 15-0 before Hoban would not only score but the first shot attempt in five minutes of the stretch.

Leaving the Knights with only seven total points to end the first quarter and only scoring eight in the second to end the half trailing 26-15.

The second half would open with Hoban pressing the whole floor off and on as that would slow down the St. V offense, and giving them chances to close the gap a bit with hot shooting and tough play from senior James McCarthy and senior Kenny Scott. 

In the fourth Hoban would make a run shrinking the gap 39-30 at the 4:35 mark of the quarter and continued chipping away until they were trailing 38-41 with 2:00 left in game.

Hoban had a shot to inch closer, a three shot foul was assessed with sophomore John Johnson shooting and missing two of the three.

Off the bench for the Irish, junior Caleb Hill would put the nail in the coffin scoring on a putback layup late in the game and good matchup defense holding Hoban to a season low for points at 43. 

"All we were trying to do is move the ball around," said Joyce. "When you get that kind of contribution from, we went 10 deep on the bench you gotta feel good about it." 

The Irish will move to 6-5 in the young season looking forward to their next game versus Fairfield, as Hoban will suffer the first loss of season falling to 10-1 and move on to play Solon at home.