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With the crowd reaction, you’d think Korf Gymnasium was announced to host an NBA franchise.
The Hannibal High School Pirates basketball team defeated the Mexico Bulldogs for the second time on the season in front of a raucous crowd by a score of 61-54.
The contest was close throughout, though Hannibal never trailed in the contest, the point differential always seemed to be one or two points and was tied at 30 each at the half.
Hannibal Head Coach Matt Pugh said this is exactly what he expected out of Mexico.
“Winning these sorts of games is always nice,” Pugh said. “We knew that coming in every time we play those guys it’s always a battle, like a heavyweight bout. Each team is throwing blows and each score is like a body punch in a boxing match. You feel like going down and both teams showed a tremendous amount of character. We’re fortunate and extremely proud of our guys. Not only them, but our staff too, and everybody that is involved with our program.”
The contest was tight until the end, with every Hannibal made shot — to an eruption from the crowd — being countered by a Mexico shot.
The score was 53-22 with 3:15 left, 55-52 with two minutes left and 55-54 with 51.2 seconds left.
With the crowd as hot as they could be, Dalton Powell stepped up to the line to nail two free throws. Logan Hicks was fouled after this, with 12 seconds left, and proceeded to make both of his shots to put Hannibal ahead for good and give Hannibal its second win over Mexico on the season, a group that defeated the Pirates three times in the previous season.
Hicks said he knew what hitting those free throws meant.
“I just knew if I made one, the game was over,” Hicks said. “Before every free throw I say to myself it’s going in and I have a lot of confidence that it’s going down.”
Hicks said it felt good as a senior and team captain to make a big play for his team, because he felt his team was counting on him.
The senior said that the crowd played a major factor as the clock wound down.
“The fourth quarter was tight going back and forth, the teams exchanging blows,” Hicks said. “The crowd was a huge factor. When we got a bucket here or there or a stop, it gave us a lot of momentum.“
With the crowd reaction, you’d think Korf Gymnasium was announced to host an NBA franchise.
The Hannibal High School Pirates basketball team defeated the Mexico Bulldogs for the second time on the season in front of a raucous crowd by a score of 61-54.
The contest was close throughout, though Hannibal never trailed in the contest, the point differential always seemed to be one or two points and was tied at 30 each at the half.
Hannibal Head Coach Matt Pugh said this is exactly what he expected out of Mexico.
“Winning these sorts of games is always nice,” Pugh said. “We knew that coming in every time we play those guys it’s always a battle, like a heavyweight bout. Each team is throwing blows and each score is like a body punch in a boxing match. You feel like going down and both teams showed a tremendous amount of character. We’re fortunate and extremely proud of our guys. Not only them, but our staff too, and everybody that is involved with our program.”
The contest was tight until the end, with every Hannibal made shot — to an eruption from the crowd — being countered by a Mexico shot.
The score was 53-22 with 3:15 left, 55-52 with two minutes left and 55-54 with 51.2 seconds left.
With the crowd as hot as they could be, Dalton Powell stepped up to the line to nail two free throws. Logan Hicks was fouled after this, with 12 seconds left, and proceeded to make both of his shots to put Hannibal ahead for good and give Hannibal its second win over Mexico on the season, a group that defeated the Pirates three times in the previous season.
Hicks said he knew what hitting those free throws meant.
“I just knew if I made one, the game was over,” Hicks said. “Before every free throw I say to myself it’s going in and I have a lot of confidence that it’s going down.”
Hicks said it felt good as a senior and team captain to make a big play for his team, because he felt his team was counting on him.
The senior said that the crowd played a major factor as the clock wound down.
“The fourth quarter was tight going back and forth, the teams exchanging blows,” Hicks said. “The crowd was a huge factor. When we got a bucket here or there or a stop, it gave us a lot of momentum.“
Pugh agreed with his player, saying that the crowd was a perfect example of what home field advantage should be about.
“It was a fun atmosphere and something that we were encouraged to see,” Pugh said. “I feel like our group is deserving of that, it’s really nice to see the community support and not only just coming out, but being in the game. That’s why you play games at home. For nights like this where you give yourself your home field advantage where you have a bit of energy from the crowd and you’re playing in front of your peers and members of your community. Really excited to see that and hope that’s something we can build on and really continue.”
With Hannibal’s second win, the Pirates improve to 19-5 with a 10-0 conference record and Mexico moves to 18-4 with a 7-2 conference record.
Pugh and Hicks both said the victories over Mexico are something the team is going to relish.
“It’s a big deal because last year we lost to them three times and they took the conference by beating us,” Hicks said. “This year, we feel pretty confident beating them twice. We have two more conference games and hopefully we’ll get the number one seed in districts.”
“You always feel fortunate to get in a situation where you can beat them two times,” Pugh said. “We’re not out of the woods yet with them. If both teams handle their business, there is an opportunity we could meet again in district play. We’re extremely fortunate to beat a really good Mexico team, a top-10 ranked team in the state. With just four losses on the year, they are having a great season once again.”
Christian Williams led the team in scoring with 19 points, Michael Shivers scored 12 points, Hicks and Powell both contributed 10 points, Jay Jones had five points, Pravon McBride added three points and Zach Voss contributed two points.
The junior varsity team also played on the night, falling 45-40 to Mexico’s JV squad.
Coach Craig Altheide said the defeat came from an offensive standpoint.
“We struggled offensively again,” Altheide said. “We played a good, strong Mexico team that was strong fundamentally offensively and defensively. We played much better defensively, probably our best defensive game all season. Offensively we just struggled again, it’s what has hurt us in most of our losses this year, the inability to be able to get that offense going at times.”
Hannibal has two games left on the season, both conference contests against Fulton and Marshall.
Pugh said he wants to see his team finish the fight.
“I want them to finish. That’s our goal, it has always been something, it has been our Achilles heel at times, our ability to finish,” Pugh said. “Whether it be a game, a half, a quarter or whatever, now we’re looking to finish off a good season and give us some confidence going down the stretch into district play. It’s going to be really big.”
Should Hannibal win its final two conference games, it will have had a perfect 12-0 record in conference play.
Pugh and Hicks said it would be big for Hannibal to accomplish that.
“That would be huge,” the coach said. “I don’t know that since the conference went to a home-and-home schedule, not sure that a Hannibal team has gone 12-0 in conference play. Our staff has talked to our guys the past several weeks about the opportunities they have been given. We just want to try to maximize those opportunities the best we can. For a lot of those guys, a few weeks of basketball left in your high school career and those are times you’ll never get back and you don’t want a lot of regrets coming out of that.”
“I think it’d be the first time in nine years that Hannibal has won the conference and maybe the first time ever since we went 12-0 in conference,” Hicks said. “It would feel pretty good.”
Tip-off is scheduled for around 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 9, at Korf Gymnasium following the JV contest.
