HOOPESTON — “The energy in the game changed the outcome.”
Oakwood’s Carsen Dudley’s saying was the overlying theme of Tuesday’s game between the Comets and Hoopeston Area.
Even though the Cornjerkers scored first, it was Oakwood that was making shots and making plays that would lead to an 68-50 win in Hoopeston Area’s home opener.
After Nick Cardenas made the first basket of the night seconds into the game, Hoopeston Area could not follow up on that, falling behind 17-6 after the first quarter and 34-8 at halftime.
“The first half was a mirror image of our practice yesterday (Monday). There was no hustle, energy, no enthusiasm,” Hoopeston Area coach Kevin Root said. “Nobody wanted to step up. We scored in the first two seconds and then were were outscored 34-6 and that is on the three seniors and one junior that we have on the team to step up and none of them are doing that.”
Oakwood’s Ben Darling had 15 of his game-high 17 points in the first half to set the pace.
“It felt good,” Darling said. “I am a streaky player to be honest and it gets my energy up to make some shots.”
In the third quarter, the Cornjerkers started to wake up and get some energy of their own. They would score 28 points in the third quarter with Brayden Walder scoring 11 and Zach Huchel scoring nine in the quarter to get to within 50-36.
“It is always our first half where we don’t come out with much energy and we find ourselves in a hole but we always come back,” Walder said. “If we play like we played in the second half, we can easily cruise through and win, but our first quarter is what messes with us.”
“They are a tough team and Walder is going to make tough shots and he has done that for the last three years,” Darling said. “Also Cardenas is a great shooter, so you have to be aware of them to win the game. They are a good team.”
But in the fourth quarter, it was Dudley — who was celebrating his birthday on Tuesday — that brought the energy back to the Comets with seven points to stop any more runs from the Cornjerkers.
“Keeping our energy up really helped us win this game,” Dudley said. “Even though we were down for a while, we still had our heads up and we wanted to win. Everyone was making shots and Ben was on fire, so that kept the defense off me and it helped a lot. “
Alex Wallace had 16 points for Oakwood, while Jaethan Perez had 13, Dudley had 12 points and Nathan Young added six.
“It is one of those games where we did really well but they are better than it showed and they came back,” Oakwood coach Jeff Mandrell said. “To come here to win by 18, I am happy because they are a good team that did good things.”
The Comets were coming off playing in the Monticello Tournament and Darling said it gave them confidence for the rest of the season.
“I felt that it helped in our confidence even though we went 1-3,” Darling said. “We hung with Tuscola until the fourth quarter and without our point guard, Alex. We came in with a chip on our shoulder because of County Tournament seeding coming up and they beat us twice last season. That tournament gave us momentum and we used the losses as energy.”
Dudley scored the 1,00th point of his career during the tournament, but he does not want that to be the final highlight.
“It feels good to score 1,000 but we have to keep going and we still have a lot of goals we want to accomplish, “ Dudley said.
Walder had 14 points, while Cole Miller had 11, Cardenas had 10 and Huchel had nine, but Root said a lack of leadership at the right time was the culprit.
“Someone has to step up and take control of the game,” Root said. “We can be pretty good if we play hard. If we played that way in the first half like we did in the second half, it would be a different game. If you hold Dudley to 12 points when he scores 26 a game, then you should win, but the other four guys stepped up and we didn’t.
“I don’t think we went hard in practice and I think some wait until game time to turn it on and as you can see — that doesn’t happen — so we have to push a little harder in practice for us to do well.”
Walder said that if the Cornjerkers’ energy gets right, they can deliver more than just wins this season.
“They out-hustled us, outplayed us and they wanted it more,” Walder said. “We have to come out with more energy. We see glimpses of how great a team we can be and by the end of the year, we can hopefully we can pull four quarters together. We want to be the best team here in the last 40 years and we want to win a regional title.”