HOPKINTON – It was an eventful evening of basketball for Hopkinton High on Thursday. The girls’ basketball team took down Kearsarge, 41-24, while the boys’ team beat the Cougars, 55-39.
Here are three takeaways from each game, first from the girls’ masterful defensive performance:
Hopkinton executed its adjustments from the last meeting: When these two teams matched up just two weeks ago, Hawks head coach Pat Roye said the Cougars did a good job using the screen and roll to create mismatches for his team on defense. On Thursday, they made sure to focus on bringing weak-side help.
That notably applied to Kearsarge’s Tessa Merinello, who Roye said gave his team some trouble in that first meeting, was held to just four points and had to work much harder for her opportunities.
Kearsarge (4-3) didn’t score more than eight points in any quarter and didn’t have a player who scored more than eight points.
Beth Taylor gave the Hawks a spark off the bench: If you blinked, you missed it. Taylor came off the bench in the second quarter, and in a flurry, picked up two layups and corralled a couple of boards. That spark helped propel the Hawks (5-1) to a 20-12 halftime lead.
“Beth does that,” Roye said. “She comes off the bench, and in a two-minute stretch, she’ll grab two rebounds, score four points. She’s been doing it all season so far. Very happy with that.”
Overall, Roye said he was pleased with the performance from his bench players. He noted that because his team played several games in the Capital Area Classic, it gave his depth more opportunities to play against top-tier opponents. Now back into regular season play, he’s seen that confidence grow.
“Our depth was a key factor in this game,” he said. “Beth Taylor, Gina Simpkins, Sydney Westover, all those kids came in and did a great job, so that really helps. It allows us to keep the defensive pressure up.”
Kearsarge has shown promise this year but still has work to do: Cougars head coach Ed Tenney was noticeably frustrated after his team lost to Hopkinton by double digits for the second time in two weeks. Though the Cougars had built some momentum coming into the game, pushing a Stevens team that’s currently 5-1 in a 45-39 loss on Monday and beating Monadnock on Tuesday, holding the Huskies to just 32 points, they didn’t have the same touch against the Hawks.
On Thursday, Kearsarge shot itself in the foot too many times to stay in position to pull out a road win.
“Really talented teams can beat themselves but still somehow win. We’re not talented enough to do that,” Tenney said. “We have to be better allies to ourselves.”
At 4-3, Kearsarge is still right in the thick of the D-III standings. And now that Hopkinton, one of the top teams in the division, is out of the Cougars’ way, they can look ahead to trying to find their rhythm as the season approaches its middle third.
Hopkinton boys’ can shoot the three: In the first quarter alone, the Hawks hit six three-pointers, including four from Marek Joppa. Overall, they sank 11 threes, accounting for 60% of their offense on the night.
“We’re very much a team that has the ability to shoot everywhere,” head coach Matt Miller said.
“I don’t want to say it’s something we rely on, but it’s something that we execute well, and our offense typically creates a lot of chances for it, and we have a number that are capable of knocking down outside shots.”
Especially in the first eight minutes of action, the Hawks (6-0) showed that they can score at will from beyond the arc.
Joppa is an offensive force for Miller: Just in case his 24-point performance against Kearsarge (1-6) on Dec. 22 wasn’t enough, the 6-foot-2 junior stole the show with 26 points, that included five threes for the game and 14 points in the first quarter alone.
His length combined with his shooting touch made him almost impossible for the Cougars to guard.
“His ability to stretch the floor out, his willingness to attack the rim when he’s supposed to and then the willingness to move the ball when it’s not his time to create chances for other guys, so then he ends up open again, just creates a lot of great opportunities all over the place,” Miller said of what makes Joppa such a force.
The performance went a long way in allowing the Hawks to take a comfortable 35-16 lead into halftime.
Don’t let the final score or Kearsarge’s record deceive you: Losing a game by 16 points to fall to 1-6 doesn’t necessarily inspire much confidence. But the Cougars – after losing to Monadnock, 51-50, on a buzzer-beater on Tuesday – did outscore Hopkinton in the second half, 23-20. Surely, the game pressure wasn’t the same as it would’ve been if the score was closer through two quarters, but Kearsarge deserves credit for the relentlessness it showed.
The Cougars’ defense, in particular, gave the Hawks some problems down the stretch.
“It was five guys creating effort off the ball all over the place, putting our guys in negative spots where they have to make a quick decision, and unfortunately we made the wrong one a lot because of the pressure they were putting on the ball,” Miller said.
And for Kearsarge head coach Nate Camp, instilling this energy and determination in his roster has been important after losing most of his contributors from last year’s team that reached the D-III championship game.
“We told these guys we’ll never stop coaching them,” Camp said. “We’re gonna be coaching until the end. (We) definitely have some youth and some kids that are coming along. We believe in them. We know that they can make plays, and you saw some tonight. … We’re starting to figure things out, and they’re playing for each other. It’s a great group to coach; they’re great kids. We just gotta continue to develop.”