Nighthawks down Tigers for 3rd-straight win

MARSHALL, Texas — National Park extended its winning streak out to three games Monday as the Nighthawks defeated the East Texas Baptist developmental team on the road, 100-86.

With a 54-40 lead coming out of the half, the Nighthawks (4-4, 1-0 Region 2) were sparked by Terry Clardy Jr. who put up 10 of NPC’s points on a 15-5 run to pull out to 69-45 with 5:07 off the clock in the half. The Tigers, fueled by a pair of 3-pointers by Mark Kunz cut the deficit down to 16 by the 12:40 mark, 71-55.

The Tigers pulled within 12 at the 9:26 mark before NPC went on a

9-0 run over the next 2:33 to stretch back out to a 21-point spread, 85-64. ETBU hit a 9-4 run to cut the spread back down to 15, 88-73.

After a 13-4 run by the Tigers pulled the home team within 6, the Nighthawks shut down the game on a 8-0 run for the win.

“I like that we had a game like that,” Nighthawks head coach Jason Hudnell said. “It’s good for us. It’ll serve us well when we get into conference play in January and February. It’s good for us to be able to call that timeout after they’ve made a run, kind talk about what we want to do, how we’re going to do it and just take care of the ball, hit free throws down the stretch, and then we’re kind of able to extend it out there at the end.”

The Nighthawks were without several players, including Patrick Greene, who has been one of the team’s offensive leaders to this point.

“When you lose Patrick Greene, like we have for a stretch right here, that’s a lot of scoring that you’ve taken out of your arsenal,” Hudnell noted. “I was really proud of some of the kids that stepped up. I thought Joe [Ramey] did a good job, stepping in that spot and starting for us. I was proud of the way that he attacked the glass and attacked the rim.”

The Nighthawks pushed out to an early 15-4 lead over the home team with a Clardy layup and back-to-back buckets from Joe Ramey for the

6-0 lead before the Tigers got on the board with a short jumper for 2. Ramey pushed his points out to 6 with his shot at the 15:16 mark for the

11-point lead.

ETBU matched NPC shot-for-shot over the next 1:30 before an 8-2 run by the Nighthawks, including a two-handed dunk by sophomore

transfer Reyhan Cobb at the 10:17 mark, pushed the lead out to 2813. The Tigers put up 8 points in under a minute on a 13-2 run to pull within 34-29 with 5:50 to go in the first half.

“I’m proud of how we responded to that adversity,” said Hudnell. “We’re getting better at some things. Defensively, we still had some breakdowns that we need to work on and look at. I thought we rebounded the ball a little better tonight than we did the other night.”

Sophomore David Jagers pulled up for a 3-pointer with 5:09 left to stop the bleeding, and a layup by Clardy 20 seconds later pushed the spread back out to 10. The Nighthawks went on a 13-2 run in the final three minutes to push out to a

54-37 lead after Ramey got the putback on his missed free throw with

8 seconds remaining, but ETBU’s Jarvis Penny put up a 34-foot shot with just over a second left to set the halftime spread.

Clardy led the Nighthawks with

25 points while pulling down 7 rebounds.

“He really brought a lot of effort tonight,” Hudnell said. “Sometimes he’s played in spurts, and we like to get his motor going a little bit. I felt like tonight he really had that. I was proud of the effort that he gave and the intensity he played with.”

Cobb earned a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds with an assist and a block, Jagers added

15 points with 7 boards, Vick had

14 points, and Ramey 13. The team had 47 rebounds with 33 coming on the defensive end of the court, and they shot 36 of 64 from the field and 5 of 13 from 3-point range.

“We’re not a great outside shooting team right now, so I’m really proud of the fact that we didn’t come out and just jack up a bunch of them,” Hudnell concluded. “There are a couple of them that were kind of ill shots, but we’re starting to understand who we are, how we can score, and now maybe if we can convert and maybe get a little smarter on the defensive end, we’ve got a chance to be a pretty good ballclub. “