GRIFFITH REACHES THE 500 WIN MARK
By Ty Bartell
AKRON OH- The Archbishop Hoban Knights boys basketball team has been riding a bit of a hot streak in the second half of the season. Entering Tuesday’s matchup with The Holy Name Green Wave, The Knights were coming off a three-game winning streak with the most recent win coming against a very tough Lutheran West Longhorns squad! Not only that, but Hoban was also attempting to capture Head Coach T.K. Griffith’s 500th win with The Knights!
“Agent 0” Jonas Nichols went on a scoring fury early on, propelling Hoban to an early 22-11 advantage after the first quarter. The Knights kept up the 20 points a quarter pace, outscoring The Greenwave 20-11 in the second to grab an emphatic 42-22 halftime lead!
Hoban came out of the halftime, picking up where they left off, hitting blackjack 21 points in the third quarter, as off the backs of a 21-13 third, The Knights extended their lead to 63-35 entering the fourth quarter to start the final eight minutes of play. The most competitive quarter of the night still saw The Knights get the edge on The Green Wave 18-17 in the fourth, putting the finishing touches on an 81-52 win for Hoban!
Player of the Game was Jonas Nichols who finished with a double-double of 32 points and 10 rebounds! Following him, both Kenny Scott and Andrew Karhoff both had 11 points, while Same Greer scored 10 points to pace The Knights! Drew Styers led The Green Wave in scoring, finishing the night with 17 points followed by Adam Humenik who had 12 points.
The win also secured the 500th in the long and illustrious 31 season career of The Knights skipper T.K. Griffith. More than the success brought to Hoban over those years, which include 20 consecutive winning seasons, Coach T.K. is one that everyone in the Hoban community loves. Doubling as the head coach, T.K. serves as the principal of Archbishop Hoban
High School first and the impact he has had in the lives of so many men and women is unmatched! From humble beginnings as a ball boy for The Knights, not only falling in love with the sport of basketball, but falling in love with Hoban as well, to winning a state championship in 1989 as a member of the team, to coaching that team just 3 years later all to come full circle, winning the second state championship in school history with his son Andrew as the smallest Division I school to do so ever in the 2023-2024 campaign! What else can you say? Sometimes, Cinderella stories are real!
Hoban (11-6) will now go back on the road where they will do battle with another Federal league opponent this season in The Green Bulldogs (12-3) on Tuesday, February 6th. Interviews with both Coach T.K. Griffith and Jonas Nichols can be found below! Stay updated with Hoban Basketball all season long with live games, scores, stats, stories and more on YSN!
