Boys Junior High Basketball Closes Season With Split Today Against Montour

Today marked the end of the Hopewell Boys Junior High Basketball season.

The two Viking teams hosted the Montour Spartans and played two very entertaining games- one for the competitiveness and the other for the pure dominance.

The Gold team played probably their best offensive game of the season as they defeated Montour by the score of 72-17. This team finished the season with an overall record of 15-1, despite moving up a level of competition. That means that this group of 8th grade boys finished their Hopewell junior high basketball career with an overall record of 30-1, with the only loss coming on a half-court shot at the buzzer. Not bad at all.

As far as scoring by quarters today, Hopewell led after the first quarter, 21-2. James Armstrong and Brody Rock scored 19 of the 21 points. At halftime, the score was 45-10, with Armstrong having 17, Rock 15 and Jack Biega 7. After 3 quarters, the lead increased to 59-17.

Individual Scoring:
James Armstrong: 20 points.
Brody Rock: 17 points.
Jack Biega: 7 points.
Avery Bokor: 6 points.
Maddox Fattore: 5 points.
Jayvion Lindsey: 5 points.
Tre Cameron: 4 points.
Kareem Hairston: 4 points.
Aaden Gonzalez: 2 points.
Manny Gomez: 2 points.

Next stop for most of these boys is playing for the Hopewell High School or Junior Varsity team next season.

In the first game of the afternoon, the Blue team didn’t win but it wasn’t for a lack of effort. Slow starts in the 1st quarter and running out of steam in the 4th quarter were the big issues.

Hopewell was only able to score 2 points in the opening quarter due in large part to a lot of misses of makeable shots around the rim.

It looked as though it was going to be a long afternoon as the Vikings trailed 16-2 late in the 2nd quarter before Luke Vukovcan connected on a 3-pointer from the top of the key to cut the score to 16-5. Less than a minute later, Vukovcan connected again from long range to make the score 16-8, which ended up being the halftime score.

Hopewell came out of halftime and played a great 3rd quarter, possibly their best quarter of the season.

Zack Sampson, Hopewell’s leading scorer this season, drove the baseline for 2 points, to cut the deficit to six. Next possession, Andrew Arzberger grabbed a defensive rebound and with a strong outlet, hit Josh Gill, who converted an acrobatic layup. Montour 16-12.

Later in the quarter, Vukovcan grabbed a loose ball and found Ryan Gaguzis in the corner, who drilled a 3, which cut the deficit to one point. Montour 16-15. Hopewell got their first lead of the game as Vukovcan drove the right baseline and connected on a floater. Hopewell led 17-16.

After Montour scored a basket to go up two, the Vikings responded as Gaguzis grabbed an offensive rebound and followed that up with a corner jumper. Hopewell led after 3 quarters 19-18 after initially trailing 16-2.

Unfortunately for Hopewell, they got outscored 10-2 in the final quarter as their only basket came on a Sampson jumper.

Final Score: Montour 28 Hopewell 21.

Both teams put in a ton of work and effort this season. Congratulations on your success and look forward to following you next season.