A COMEBACK IN THE CASTLE
By Ty Bartell
AKRON OH- Competing for the second time in as many days, The Archbishop Hoban Knights girls
basketball team main evented their third annual Hoban Hoopfest with the final game being a first time ever matchup between The Knights and The Toledo Central Catholic Fighting Irish. With both teams playing on Saturday, the question would be how much would be left in either team’s tank?
The Irish certainly came out fighting, jumping ahead of The Knights 16-8 after a quarter. With Central Catholic being led on the scoreboard by Loyola of Chicago commit, Brooklyn Vaughn who scored 9 points in the first quarter! The Irish would build on this lead in the second quarter, going up by as much as 13 points at one time over Hoban. However, The Knights battled back to make it a manageable deficit at halftime with Toledo Central Catholic leading it 29-22.
Like so many times prior this season, with The Knights down on the scoreboard they armored up on defense! Simultaneously, Hoban got into a rhythm offensively with the highest output of team scoring happening in the second half. A 19-12 third quarter helped cut Central Catholic’s lead to just a bucket, with The Irish holding the slim 41-39 edge after three. The Knights defense really shined in the fourth, allowing just 8 points in the quarter, Hoban was able to complete the hard-fought comeback with a 57-49 win over The Irish!
Co-Players of The Game were awarded, one to MacKenzie Edingburgh who led the charge offensively with 15 points and 5 rebounds to go along. The other to MaKenzie Grant who helped defensively limit, not one, but two Division I college commits over the weekend! Beyond that, Grant also had a productive night all around with 8 points and 9 rebounds! Neira Stevens had another double-digit offensive night as Zig finished with 11 points and 4 rebounds.
The Knights also had good nights from Devin Harris (8 points, 5 rebounds), Taylyn Banta (7 points, 4 rebounds) and Finley Kennedy (5 points, 1 rebound). On the other side, The Fighting Irish were led by Brooklyn Vaughn who finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Followed by Corniya Clay who had 11 points and Serenity Bolden who ended the night with 9 points.
Hoban (6-0) will now get a few days off before battling an old city rival on Wednesday, December 13 when they travel to Ellet (3-2) to take on The Orangemen. Toledo Central Catholic (2-2) will look to get back in the win column when they host The St. Ursula Academy Arrows (0-3) on Saturday, December 16th. Stay updated with Hoban Knights basketball all season long with live games, scores, stats, stories and more on YSN!
