GIRARD’S STRONG DEFENSE LEADS TO VICTORY

HUBBARD, Ohio –

Since 2006, the Hubbard Eagles (2-16) and Girard Indians (10-6) have matched up a total of twenty-one times, with Girard holding the series edge 11-10. While Hubbard dominated the early series matchups, Girard has since won nine of the last eleven.

Throughout those twenty-one faceoffs, five saw the game end within a single possession, and the early part of the ballgame looked like these two NE8 foes were heading down that road again. A back-and-forth first quarter of play ended with the Eagles ahead 15-13. Unfortunately for Hubbard, that fifteen-point effort was the highest point total they’d produce in a single quarter, while Girard was just getting started.

Dominating both on the glass and defensively, Girard heavily outrebounded Hubbard. Crashing the boards offensively provided the Indians with plenty of easy looks from the inside, while their rebounding efforts on the opposite end helped hold Hubbard to just five second quarter points.

Coming out of the break trailing by five, the Hubbard Eagles needed their senior star, Riley Heckert, to produce. Heckert would do so early, knocking down an opener jumper to draw Hubbard within just one, and adding on a pullup jumper late from around the elbow to leave the blue and white trailing by just three with a quarter to go.

Much as they have all season, Hubbard staggered throughout the final stanza. Turnovers and poor defense led to easy Girard looks for the Indians to put the game out of reach. Gus Johnson and Bobby Alejears would lead the way for Girard in the fourth, combining for twelve of the Indians sixteen points to give the Indians the win, 48-36.

HUBBARD:

Riley Heckert – 17 points

Brody Snyder – 11 points

GIRARD:

Gus Johnson – 14 points

Bobby Alejears – 9 points

Thomas Cardiero – 8 points

Hubbard – Falling to 2-9 in the conference, the Eagles will regroup and look to complete the season sweep of the South Range Raiders (4-13). Both teams will head into the matchup off of a loss.

Girard – Securing a double-digit win total for the first time since the 2018-2019 season, the Girard Indians will head into Friday nights home matchup against the Poland Bulldogs (12-5), looking for revenge. These two programs last faced off January 7th in a game that the Bulldogs would win 63-53.

*Contributed By YSN’s Jamie Thomson