Defense shines early in Hawks’ win over Akron-Westfield boys
Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn limited Akron-Westfield to just four baskets in the first half and went on to defeat the Westerners 63-42 in a late Saturday afternoon game played January 7 at Hartley. With the win HMS improved to 3-1 in the War Eagle Conference and raised its overall record to 5-2.
The Hawks outshot their guests 40 percent to 27 percent. For HMS it was 19 field goals in 47 attempts. The Westerners connected on 16 of their 59 tries. Akron-Westfield launched 33 trey attempts but made only eight. The home team was 5-of-17 from beyond the arc and 20-of-32 at the free throw line. The Westerners attempted just three foul shots, two of which were good.
Kooper Ebel led the Hawks with 23 points and 16 rebounds. Lance Berends contributed 12 points and an equal number of rebounds. Keevyn Jacobsma added 11 points and seven boards. Trenton Vollink and Travis Kamradt chipped in with eight points apiece and four and three rebounds respectively. Isaac Schierholz scored the final HMS point. The Hawks easily won the rebound battle 47 to 28.
The 17 Hawk assists included five from Kamradt, four from Vollink and three from Lucas Kroese. There were also eight HMS steals with Kamradt accounting for half of them. Each team was guilty of 13 turnovers.
A-W 6 3 17 16 – 42
HMS 13 14 14 22 – 63