{"id":9756,"date":"2024-01-18T11:14:30","date_gmt":"2024-01-18T11:14:30","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Hopkinton-Boys-Basketball-Gilford-53716013\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=9756","title":{"rendered":"Boys\u2019 basketball: By the skin of its teeth, Hopkinton hangs on to beat Gilford to extend win streak to six"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Hopkinton
Hopkinton forward Kristof Cauley gets fouled by Gilford forward Cooper Perkins as he goes up for a shot during the first half on Wednesday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Gilford
Gilford players surround Hopkinton center Abram Standefer during the first half on Wednesday, January 17, 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Hopkinton
Hopkinton players surround Gilford forward Cooper Perkins as he goes up for a shot during the first half on Wednesday, January 17, 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Hopkinton
Hopkinton guard Colby Boissy goes up for a shot against Gilford forward Ben Normand during the first half on Wednesday, January 17, 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>

CONTOOCOOK \u2013\u00a0There was a point on Wednesday night where it looked like Hopkinton boys\u2019 basketball was in deep trouble. Then it looked like the Hawks were in cruise control. And then they nearly blew it.<\/p>\n

Hopkinton trailed defending champions Gilford, 7-2, with 5:07 remaining in the first quarter when Hawks\u2019 head coach Matt Miller called a timeout. They proceeded to hold the Golden Eagles scoreless over the next 6:28 of game time, carving out a 26-13 lead by halftime and then a 40-25 lead entering the fourth quarter. But with 2:10 remaining in the game, Gilford (6-3) had stormed back to\u00a0cut the Hopkinton advantage to just 46-41.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Hawks (7-3) held on, thanks in part to a big 3-pointer from sophomore Kristof Cauley with 1:20 remaining,\u00a0but still made Miller sweat just a little in their 51-46 win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we were brilliant for three-and-a-half quarters,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had a game plan coming in defensively, and I think we executed that for four quarters. Offensively, we mostly executed it for four quarters, but self-inflicted wounds against a team of that caliber that knows how to do that and take care of business took advantage of that, and what could\u2019ve been a 20-point game \u2026 turned into a five-point game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The win was Hopkinton\u2019s sixth in a row after a 1-3 start to the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Senior Abram Standefer\u00a0guided the Hawks\u00a0offense with 20 points, the only player\u00a0to hit double figures. The 6-7 do-it-all center knocked down key shots and was immensely disruptive around the rim defensively.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as high school basketball goes, he\u2019s almost like that unicorn-type player,\u201d Miller said.\u00a0\u201cAnd then you add\u00a0in that he\u2019s unselfish. He\u2019s that type of guy that, he\u2019s willing to make the team play.<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight he had 20 points, and he was scoring when he\u00a0needed to, but he\u2019s also the first guy to recognize the right time to kick out. We had a game a week ago where he had four points, but he had like eight assists because it was just not his time to be the guy. He brings that perfect leader for us and that perfect energy all the time. We go as he goes and how he plays and wants to play, the team follows.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t all perfect on Wednesday, though, as the near-collapse would suggest. Hopkinton allowed a number of offensive rebounds and struggled mightily from the free throw line, shooting just 5-for-19 (26%).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, the Hawks have dug themselves out of a hole after the 1-3 start to position themselves well in the Division III standings. Hopkinton now sits in fourth\u00a0with the win.<\/p>\n

The biggest key to the turnaround, Miller said, has been the team figuring out its identity after losing six players from last year\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found our identity defensively and made that our emphasis and our drive,\u201d he said. \u201cEverything that happens on the offensive end is because the defense does the work, and that\u2019s kind of been our staple \u2014 make the play down here so we can get going in the other end. Finding our identity has really allowed us to catapult and figure ourselves out and hold on in close games against good teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the season, the Hawks are allowing just over 38 points per game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing a good job of putting ourselves back into the conversation that we kind of drifted out of,\u201d Miller added. \u201cI\u2019m excited to see what the rest of the division has because I think it\u2019s wide open, and I like the direction we\u2019re trending right now.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CONTOOCOOK \u2013\u00a0There was a point on Wednesday night where it looked like Hopkinton boys\u2019 basketball was in deep trouble. Then it looked like the Hawks were in cruise control. And then they nearly blew it.Hopkinton trailed defending champions Gilford,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":9757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":true,"_newspack_byline":"by [Author id=188]Eric Rynston-Lobel[\/Author] Monitor staff","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,508],"tags":[24,188,505],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[533],"class_list":["post-9756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-youth","category-top-headlines-cm","tag-facebook","tag-hopkinton-middle-high-school","tag-paywall","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/42722446-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9758,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9756\/revisions\/9758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9756"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=9756"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=9756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}