Hudson boys basketball ends road trip with win at Kent

Hudson’s Hunter Chokan tries to get around Twinsburg’s Ethan Fiedtkou during a game earlier this season.

A year ago a scheduling quirk had the Hudson boys basketball team playing at home five of its first and six games to open the campaign. When this year’s schedules came out the Explorers found themselves on the road for its first seven games.

That trek across northeast Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania came to a close Dec. 20 as the team traveled to Kent Roosevelt where they won their second straight game downing the Rough Riders 53-44.

The victory lifted Hudson’s record to 3-4.

“This was ridiculous, it’s nobody’s fault it’s just the way the schedule fell. Last year we had four or five at home (to start) so this year it would have been five and then we picked up the two,” Hudson coach Tommy Stockard said. “The good news is we are home (mostly) the whole month of January.”

After opening the new year at Nordonia Jan. 3, Hudson will host eight out of the next nine games in the friendly confines of Ray “Buck” Hyser Gymnasium.

The Explorers return home in style with a modest two-game win streak.

“I told these guys coming into this game here, we are playing our seventh game on the road, Christmas break and Kent’s a good team … it’s going to be a dogfight,” Stockard said. “We were up 13 (points) or so. In the second half we didn’t have enough passing, not enough moving, not enough picking away. We had too many turnovers (15) a lot of them led to points on the other end; but overall a win is a win and that’s all we care about now and we’re looking for more.”

Hudson returned much of its scoring from last year with Tino Yli-Junilla, Michael Steel and Luke Brennan returning as starters again this year.

Yli-Junilla led all scorers at Roosevelt with 26 points. Steel added 20 points. A dinged up Brennan had four points but added a team best nine rebounds.

Steel was the first player in the game to reach the 20-point plateau when he hit a free throw just seconds into the final frame putting the visitors up 43-32. Yli-Junilla took care of Kent’s late surge scoring ten points over the final four minutes while Hudson’s defense bowed-up as well. The hosts made just 2–12 shots over the final six minutes and their rally fell short.

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With a two game win streak and finally playing at home the Explorers are a confident club.

“The confidence is just out of the roof …of course we still understand that we are not the greatest team in the world but we are a damn good team,” Steel said after his career-high matching 20-point effort. Steel had 20 points last year at Akron East in an 86-71 defeat.

“Like you saw at Twinsburg (a 66–48 win just three days earlier) everybody on our team can score, everybody on our team can play. Today the scoring was mostly me and Tino but it shows what we can do as a team.”

“We’re just so confident coming into the next couple months. Teams are not going to see Hudson as a kind-of blow-by game; an easy win. It’s confidence for us. We are actually a good basketball team now,” Steel added.

At Roosevelt the Explorers never seemed to be threatened leading by at or near double digits most of the night. Hudson never trailed grabbing a quick 6-0 lead on inside scores on each of its first three possessions by; Brennan, Yli-Junilla and Steel.

The Explorers led 36-23 at halftime and 42-32 after three.

Hudson led 19-11 at the first stop as Nathan Miller came off the bench to get his first varsity points of the year with a three-pointer from the top of the circle. Miller also helped finish off the win with a pair of defensive boards and blocked shots late in the game.

“We are counting on Tino and Steel to carry the bulk of the load. Tonight Luke played great defense and got a bunch of rebounds. Nathan Miller played great down the stretch,” Stockard praised. “He came off the bench and made a three for us in the first half and played some solid D for us down the stretch. Our guards are all interchangeable; tonight they didn’t make shots for us but they have had big games for us.”

Senior guard Jagger Pallay ended with three assists and three steals, plus some great ball-handling against the Rough Riders’ pressure. All of the guards played well but didn’t take many shots as the Explorers took advantage of their size inside. Hudson out-rebounded the hosts 28-20.

Behind Yli-Junilla (11-13) and Steel (4-7) the locals converted a season’s best 15-20 at the free throw stripe. The Explorers shot an even 50% (18-36) from the floor for the game. Kent was just 15-51 (29%) from the field but thanks to junior guard Tyrel Ellington’s 4 three pointers in the first half, went 6-24 from deep.

The Explorers have a nine game win streak against Streetsboro and are looking to add to that as well as this year’s modest streak of two in a row.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Hudson boys basketball ends travels on a high note at Kent