Staff photograph / Brian Yauger
Hubbard’s Jakob Hayes, again, defends Niles senior Trey Davis throughout Tuesday’s contest in Niles.
NILES — While it began slow, as soon as the Hubbard boys basketball staff bought going, there was no slowing it down.
Coming off a decisive loss to Howland to open 2026, the Eagles earned their first win of the brand new yr on Tuesday, taking down Niles, 77-41.
Despite beginning the sport in a 9-0 gap, the senior-laden Hubbard staff completed the opening quarter with a 15-11 lead. Eagles coach Ryan Fitch knew his group and didn’t hit the panic button after the slow start.
“With a lot of seniors out there, four seniors, I know that sometimes we’ll get off to those slow starts, and it’s not really a cause for panic necessarily,” he mentioned. “We’ll chip away at it, chip away at it, and tonight we just put it all together at the right time.”
Once they bought the lead, they by no means appeared again.
Hubbard’s Jakob Hayes was a drive within the center for the Eagles. Hayes completed with 20 factors, and the photographs he didn’t make, he seemingly introduced the rebound in.
“He works really hard when he’s in the game like that,” Fitch mentioned. “He just goes after the glass, and that’s one of his strengths, getting a second shot. I was kidding around with him. I said, ‘I think you’re just padding stats, missing those layups on purpose trying to get more rebounds.’ Jakob’s a good kid. He works for us, so I’m happy he was able to have a good game.”
Braydon Songer led Hubbard with 22 factors and Kenyen Franklin scored 21.
Niles was led by Cash Carey-Hardin and Joey Lehman, every scoring 13 factors. Alex Doyle III added 12.
Hubbard strikes to 5-4 with the victory and 3-1 in Northeast 8 play.
After an in depth loss to Hickory (Pa.) and convincing losses to Fitch and Howland, the Eagles hope to use this as a springboard going into the meat of their schedule.
As the video games get tougher, a concentrate on competing is critical.
“We lost a couple games big to Fitch and Howland. They’re two good teams, but we just seemed like we didn’t even compete in those games, so for the last couple days, I’ve been challenging them a little bit to compete a little bit better,” Fitch mentioned. “Tonight, they came out.”
The Eagles look to preserve their momentum going with a street contest towards McDonald.
“I know (McDonald coach) Jimmy (Franceschelli) will have them ready over there,” Fitch mentioned. “They’re playing really, really, really good basketball right now, so we’re gonna have to get the next two days, get prepared and see what we can do there.”
Niles coach Jesse Hardin was unable to be reached for remark. The Red Dragons (2-7, 1-3 NE8) play host to Poland on Friday.