Hawks show grit, desire in winning first game of the season

“I think the team is progressing at the end of the day, whether it’s a win or a loss,” Lingel said. “Obviously, we like the W’s but what I’m seeing is they’re growing up.”

The Hawks started the game with good offense, but the Huskies kept up with them and ended the quarter at 14-13.

In the second quarter, Horizon’s lead was lengthened and entered the second half with a 36-31 lead.

During the third quarter, Hawks were jumping and outrebounding the Huskies. Junior JJ Holste said the team simply wanted the ball more than their opponents.

“You just got to want the ball,” Holste said. “We wanted the ball that game, we got the rebounds and the rebounds converted into points.”

Towards the end of the game Open Door Christian managed to decrease its deficit to three points but was plagued with fouls that cost them the game.

“That’s when you need to be on your game as a coach when it’s really close and tight. Making sure you got things in,” Lingel said. “That’s the thing that I appreciate about these kids because we didn’t have everything in. Because some of the kids that are playing right now haven’t got the reps in if you will.”

Lingel explained some players weren’t familiar with plays because they hadn’t practiced them enough, or hadn’t had enough reps in. Lingel would alleviate this by calling timeout and explain the plays so the whole team was on the same page.

Junior Caleb Lingel missed this game after suffering a hand injury the day before while playing Central Christian. He is expected to return in six weeks in time during the middle of the season, Darrin Lingel said.

“The other players had to step up,” Darrin Lingel said. “We talked about that. There’s a void there so we all had to get better.”

Horizon’s next game will be Saturday, Dec. 14. when they’ll host Elgin at 4:30 p.m.