KNIGHTS CROWN A NEW SCORING KING
AKRON OH- The old adage “records are made to be broken” could not be truer in the world of high school sports. With every passing generation wanting to achieve greater than the last, records in the high school world are often the measuring stick for athletes wanting to know if their game is next-level worthy. For The Archbishop Hoban Knights basketball team, one record has stood for the last five plus years and that is the all-time scoring record set by University of Mount Union’s own, Collen Gurley at 1,360 points. However, a new contender for the crown has emerged in Knights senior Jonas Nichols who sat 20 points away from the record on Thursday night.
Hosting in SPIRE Academy, The Knights searched for win number nine on the season as Hoban looks for another winning campaign prior to the start of the tournament. Hoban started a scoring burst early, propelled by the hot hand of Jonas Nichols, allowing The Knights to capture a 16-10 lead after the first quarter. The two squads exchanged big shot after big shot in the second with a beautiful game of anything you can do, I can do better! Hoban would hold the halftime lead 34-26 after outscoring SPIRE by a bucket at 18-16 in the second.
Out of the halftime break and The Knights got the key run they were looking for in the third! Hoban would use lockdown defense to force turnovers and create easy transition looks to really start creating separation from SPIRE! Also in the quarter, with 19 points to his name, Jonas Nichols nailed down the shot to send him to the record books! Becoming the all-time leading scorer at Archbishop Hoban High School was the cherry on top of the 30-8 third quarter by The Knights, effectively holding a commanding 64-34 lead heading to the fourth. Not much changed in the final frame, with Hoban winning the fourth quarter 12-7 and the game by a final of 76-41!
Player of the Game, no doubt, went to Jonas Nichols who finished with 33 points and now holds the crown, passed down from Collen Gurley, as the new scoring king in The Castle! However, Gurley did not live a day without holding at least one record, as The University of Mount Union grad student captured The Purple Raiders scoring record at 1,722 points and counting on Wednesday the day before Jonas broke the Hoban record! Following Nichols, John Johnson had 9 points and Sam Mazzola had 8 points to pace The Knights. Raul Youseff led SPIRE offensively with 11 points followed by Leo Sandoval with 9 points.
Hoban (9-6) will now take their talents on the road to do battle with Lutheran West (13-1) as The Knights and The Longhorns will meet on Saturday, January 27th with a 7 p.m. tip-off. As we here at YSN congratulate Jonas Nichols on his record of 1,373 points and counting at Hoban! Keep updated with Knights basketball all season long with live games, scores, stats, stories and more on YSN!
