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Hannibal’s victory over Boonville certainly could not be classified as boring.
The Hannibal Pirates prevailed 67-55 over the rival Boonville Pirates team.
The first quarter started off with a bang, with both Mike Shivers and Pravon McBride both garnering slam dunks. The dunks electrified the audience during the Winter Homecoming contest.
McBride said it was his first time performing a slam dunk and said it was a memorable experience.
“It feels amazing, it was my first time doing a dunk, when I did that I was shocked because I never had that happen to me before,” McBride said. “It was really great.”
Following McBride’s dunk the score became 12-6. Hannibal moved the score to 14-6 before Boonville called a timeout.
This is when Shivers proclaimed he would be the next Pirate to dunk according to McBride.
“He said to me ‘I’m next, I’m next” so I said ‘Alright Mike, on a fast break I want to see you do it’,” McBride said. “He got hyper and went up for his and he said it was easy for him, so I said ‘way to go, Mike’.”
The tone in the first quarter set the pace for the rest of the contest as Hannibal went ahead 33-20 at the half and 56-29 after three quarters.
Towards the end of the contest Hannibal shifted its roster around a bit, allowing Boonville to come back a little, but it was too little, too late as Hannibal held on for the victory.
Head Coach Matt Pugh said his team stepped its game up defensively on the night.
“Yeah, I felt like we took a step closer to getting back to where our ability is defensively tonight,” Pugh said. “The guys were able to make some adjustments in game on the defensive end that I think posed some problems for Boonville.”
The coach added, “We were able to take advantage of that. It was early in the second quarter defensively where we got a couple of run-outs, a couple of dunks, a
couple of threes there and went on a nice run to kind of separate things a little there. Overall I thought it was a nice job of getting back to where we need to be this time of year.”
Pugh said the defensive effort combined with the exciting play of both Shivers and McBride made all the difference on the night.
“Whenever we’re going right defensively those are the types of plays, those energy momentum plays that I think can separate you as a ball team in any game really,” Pugh said. “Thinking down the road in a district game where all the games are tight and close and they are battles. You look back and those plays in the second quarter or third quarter or whenever they are could be, and it could be the difference in the ballgame.”
Hannibal’s victory over Boonville certainly could not be classified as boring.
The Hannibal Pirates prevailed 67-55 over the rival Boonville Pirates team.
The first quarter started off with a bang, with both Mike Shivers and Pravon McBride both garnering slam dunks. The dunks electrified the audience during the Winter Homecoming contest.
McBride said it was his first time performing a slam dunk and said it was a memorable experience.
“It feels amazing, it was my first time doing a dunk, when I did that I was shocked because I never had that happen to me before,” McBride said. “It was really great.”
Following McBride’s dunk the score became 12-6. Hannibal moved the score to 14-6 before Boonville called a timeout.
This is when Shivers proclaimed he would be the next Pirate to dunk according to McBride.
“He said to me ‘I’m next, I’m next” so I said ‘Alright Mike, on a fast break I want to see you do it’,” McBride said. “He got hyper and went up for his and he said it was easy for him, so I said ‘way to go, Mike’.”
The tone in the first quarter set the pace for the rest of the contest as Hannibal went ahead 33-20 at the half and 56-29 after three quarters.
Towards the end of the contest Hannibal shifted its roster around a bit, allowing Boonville to come back a little, but it was too little, too late as Hannibal held on for the victory.
Head Coach Matt Pugh said his team stepped its game up defensively on the night.
“Yeah, I felt like we took a step closer to getting back to where our ability is defensively tonight,” Pugh said. “The guys were able to make some adjustments in game on the defensive end that I think posed some problems for Boonville.”
The coach added, “We were able to take advantage of that. It was early in the second quarter defensively where we got a couple of run-outs, a couple of dunks, a
couple of threes there and went on a nice run to kind of separate things a little there. Overall I thought it was a nice job of getting back to where we need to be this time of year.”
Pugh said the defensive effort combined with the exciting play of both Shivers and McBride made all the difference on the night.
“Whenever we’re going right defensively those are the types of plays, those energy momentum plays that I think can separate you as a ball team in any game really,” Pugh said. “Thinking down the road in a district game where all the games are tight and close and they are battles. You look back and those plays in the second quarter or third quarter or whenever they are could be, and it could be the difference in the ballgame.”
Hannibal is now 8-0 in conference and could claim its first conference victory in nine years.
McBride said the reason for being perfect in conference comes down to the ability to play as a team.
“Everybody is playing as one, there is no individual out here, everybody is a member of the team out here,” McBride said. “I feel the success we’re having revolves around the tempo and energy we have and I feel like we’re doing great.”
The Pirates have also won two straight since losing to Helias 68-59 on Jan. 27.
Pugh said that the team’s ability to bounce back is one of its biggest strengths.
“That’s actually part of our mission statement, success through commitment, character and work ethic,” Pugh said. “That’s our culture, that’s stuff we talk about every single day and everything we do whether it be in the weight room, whether it be in film session, shoot around or whatever it is, those are all things we try to revert back to and teach our guys, because at the end of the day basketball is going to be over for all of them at some point, and we feel like our job is to give them some of those things.”
The coach added, “We think those three things: commitment, character and work ethic, we think those things are big keys in successful peoples lives and basketball is just a vehicle to help teach that. Obviously you’re seeing some of those things come out in a game, our ability to bounce back from a rough game, our ability to bounce back from a rough quarter. We have seen all these things throughout the season, so it’s nice to see all this work we put in as a staff and their buy-in to what we are trying to teach and what they are giving us is really rewarding.”
Hannibal was playing without Jay Jones who is missing time with a broken finger on his left hand. Jones will be re-evaluated on Thursday. Boonville was missing senior Jason Luster on a knee injury. Luster is out for the remainder of the season.
Scorers for Hannibal include Christian Williams who led the team with 18 points, Connor Brown contributed 15 points, Zach Voss had nine points, McBride and
Shivers both contributed seven points, Dalton Powell had six points, Logan Hicks had five points and ‘Lijah Harrison had two points.
The junior varsity team also prevailed on the night, beating Boonville’s JV squad 48-39.
Eric Hugenberg led the team with 16 points, Jeff Damon and Austin Haynes both had eight points, Harrison and Nate Voss both had seven points and Mitch Nichols had two points.
Coach Craig Altheide said the team started out slowly but came around.
“We started off a little slow offensively, we picked it up and played solid defense the whole entire game,” Altheide said. “We saw a lot of improvement on defense as well as defensive fundamentals. We had a solid team effort, and we got down at the first part of the game but they didn’t let that bother them. That is typical for this team all year. They have been in positions where they have fought back and found ways to win.”
Hannibal moves on to play its next conference game against Moberly at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 3, in Moberly. Moberly is a team that has two conference losses including a one-point loss to Mexico.
Pugh said that while the team doesn’t talk about winning the conference out-right, it is on the mind of every player.
“We hint about it, but we try not to focus on it, but I think in the back of all of our minds it is there,” Pugh said. We actually told the guys tonight before they left. There are not a lot of times in your life where you are able to control the outcome of things and your own destiny. We talk a lot about opportunity and how you don’t get opportunities all the time in your life. Athletically, professionally or what it may be and it’s really important to not look back on it and say I wish I would have done this.”
