End of Undefeated Season as Hoover Enters Home Stretch
Hoover’s undefeated season may have come to an end, but by most measures the Huskies are one of the top boys’ basketball teams in Iowa this year.
Oops!
A not-so-funny but maybe helpful-in-the-long-run thing happened to the Hoover Huskies Tuesday night on their way to an undefeated season.
Coming into the game against #8 Waukee at 16-0 the third-ranked Huskies boys’ basketball team stumbled down the stretch after rallying back to a brief and narrow lead midway through the 4th quarter. The visiting Warriors scored the game’s final 10 points to win by a misleading final score of 47-37.
Hoover faces a tough stretch as they gird for the state tournament trail they hope will lead them back to Wells Fargo Arena next month. Friday night they host last year’s Metro champs, North. The Polar Bears are rounding into postseason form, too, and stand 11-7 on the season in what was expected to be a rebuilding year for Coach Chad Ryan. Next Tuesday the Huskies will face a stern road test at Dowling Catholic. And #6 Ankeny Centennial looms in the Huskies’ sub-state bracket.
Last night’s match-up figured to be a classic one between finesse and brute strength and so it was. The Huskies are quick to a man and they litter Class 4A statistical leaderboards. Senior Chris King ranks 3rd in scoring and is tied for 4th in three-point field goals. Junior Nate Lee and sophomore Douglas Wilson both average nearly nine rebounds a game, tied for 10th in the state, despite not standing all that tall. Senior Khalid Edwards leads the state in assists at more than five per and senior Alijah Thomas is 2nd in steals.
But that balanced lineup was overcome on the brawny shoulders of Waukee’s twin bigs, Michael Jacobson, headed to Nebraska on a basketball scholarship, and Anthony Nelson, bound for Iowa to play football for the Hawkeyes. Jacobson and Nelson combined to tally all but seven of the Warrior points while staunchly defending against Hoover’s invasions of the lane.
Netting only one field goal in the 3rd quarter, Hoover trailed by half a dozen entering the final frame of a game that was tied at the half. But Edwards, the shortest kid on the court and normally an assistant to the lead dog, King, came out firing in the 4th. His nine-point binge put the host Huskies back on top at 36-35 before turnovers and Waukee’s dominance around the basket turned the tide.
Count on Coach Courtney Henderson to quickly reset his team’s course. He entered the season with a 90-26 record at Hoover since coming to the school, where he also teaches history, in 2009-10. In 2011 the Huskies advanced all the way to the state finals before falling to Linn-Mar in the title game.
The undefeated season is gone but so is any pressure that may have mounted along with the wins. A fresh season will begin when Hoover opens sub-state play at home on February 27th vs. the winner of a first round game on February 23rd between Newton and Ankeny. The goal now is to be the one team that wins its last game.
Photos from the Hoover-Waukee Basketball Game:
