HOWLAND SENDS LEOPARDS PACKING
Contributed By Noah Ricks
HOWLAND CENTER, OH – After a 6-2 start to the season, Howland went on a little bit of a downhill slump, losing three in a row to drop to 6-5. The Tigers, however, used that motivation to put up a strong second half en route to a 71-65 upset victory over the high-powered 8-2 Louisville Leopards. Coach Dan Bubon was really excited about the victory, as Louisville can arguably be considered to be the toughest team on their schedule.
“It feels great. I don’t know if that’s the best team we’ll play all year, but I really don’t think anyone’s better than them that we’ll play on our schedule, and they’re very good. They play a tough schedule. They were 8-2 coming in. #1 [Will Aljancic] is a really good player, #24 [Hayden Nigro] is a really good player, #22 [Tyler Bolden] hit eight three’s tonight. That is an excellent team and, coming off three losses, going into this game, we just felt like, “Let’s just play well, let’s just play well, let’s just play well,’ and we had the lead and played well with the lead, which we struggled with in some other games, so everything about it was great.”
Throughout the majority of the night, the game was basically a story of runs. After Howland fell behind 17-10 in the second, they would put up a strong 17-4 run to end the half to take a 27-21 run heading into the locker room. That first-half lead would have not been possible if it were not for Howland’s better scorer, who would get 18 points in the first half off of six three’s. He would finish the game with a season-high of 36. Bubon remembers the long road that Massucci had to endure as he is at the midway point of his senior season.
“I mean, especially with what he came off of, with a knee injury last year and missing half of the year, and then getting injured again in the preseason this year. He didn’t even start practicing until about a week and a half before our season started, so I mean he has given everything he has. He’s really playing on knees a lot of kids probably wouldn’t play on. He’s a heck of a competitor, he’s a really smart basketball player, and our other guys are really learning how to play with him on offense, how to set him up, because if you get him open, he’s going to make shots, and then when teams start to lunge out on him, he’s a great passer, so he’s getting other guys great shots.”
Louisville was not without their runs, though, as when they went down 33-24 in the third, they would then go on a 11-0 run to take a 35-33 lead, thanks to the help of some terrific outside shooting, including Tyler Bronson’s eight threes. Bronson would go on to lead the Leopards with 25 in one of the best games of his life. Will Aljancic also helped chip in from beyond the arc as he was another player to score in double digits for the Leopards. This was something that Coach Bubon was expecting as he knew how great of a shooting game Louisville has.
“They were going to hit shots. Yeah, we played the box-and-one on #1 [Aljancic]. #1 [Aljancic], outside of Anthony, is the best player I have seen this year, from watching film of all the other teams. #1 [Aljancic] is just tremendous, so we just played that box-and-one to not let him get going. When he gets going, it just feels like he’s never going to stop scoring, so that bothered him, now some of their other guys stepped up and hit shots, but we just felt like if we could still just stay on #1 [Aljancic] and not let him shoot, then the other guys will cool off at some point.
The Tigers with the win will improve to 7-5 on the year, snapping their three-game losing streak as they will improve to 7-3 in non-conference play. They go back to conference play on Friday as they will travel to Fitch. The Tigers are currently 0-2 in the conference, but Bubon believes that his team will be right on track come Friday.
“Well, it’s always a battle at Fitch. Coach [Brian] Beany and I go way back, I mean we played during the same era back in the late ‘80’s, so it’s always a battle at Fitch. He’s always going to have them ready. I think we’re usually going to be ready to play them, and it’s usually about who executes better, so hopefully that’s us, but everything game is new, so we have got to go get ready two days and play.”
The Leopards will drop to 8-2 overall, having dropped their second in three tries. They will look to get back in the win column on Saturday as they will play Woodridge in the Spectrum Orthopaedics Classic down at Hoover. The game is slated for a 3:00 P.M. tip.
YSN’s Noah Ricks got a chance to talk to winning coach Dan Bubon following tonight’s contest. You can watch the full interview below.
Postgame Interview With Dan Bubon:
