Forest Hills Eastern found Hopkins’ Achilles Heel on the basketball court Wednesday night at the Cornerstone Holiday Tournament.
The Vikings absorbed their first defeat of the season, 57-47, showing a glaring weakness in hitting outside shots. They made only 36 percent of their field goal attempts and just 3 of 15 three-point tries for a meager 20%.
Forest Hills spotted the weakness in the second quarter, switched to a zone defense and came from behind to take a 25-22 lead at intermission. Though Hopkins staged a nice comeback in the third quarter to tie the count at 35-35, the Hawks took control in the last eight minutes with a 22-12 run.
Things went well for the Vikings in the early going, as they spurted ahead by four to five points in the opening period and they were up 18-11 only a couple of minutes into the second quarter. But that’s when the Hawks, behind an effective fast break and outside shooting by senior Taylor Mitchell quickly tied the score at 18 and went on to dominate the rest of the contest.
Mitchell nailed his second three to put Forest Hills ahead for the first time, 23-20 and it never trailed after that.
Hopkins struggled offensively all night long, particularly after the Hawks switched to the zone, sitting back and daring the Vikings to put up threes. Sophomore southpaw point guard Colin Weber made two of his three three-point attempts and Hunter Lewellyn nailed his only try, but otherwise they were shut out in that department to the tune of 0-for-11.
Hopkins also uncharacteristically was guilty of lazy passes that were stolen and turned into opponents’ baskets and they had lapses on defense in which Hawk opponents were allowed to take the baseline for easy baskets.
But offense was the biggest headache, particularly in the second period and in the last eight minutes.
Mitchell topped all scorers with 23 points and Soloman White dropped in 19. The Hawks shot just shy of 50 percent as a team.
Lewellyn scored 12 points to lead Hopkins, Drew Weber had 11 and Colin Weber and Tyler Zomerlei chipped in eight apiece. Nolan Smith led the Vikings in rebounds with seven and they had a 34-29 advantage in team caroms.
Hopkins now is 4-1 overall and it will play next Cornerstone at 2 p.m. Saturday against Cedar Springs, which lost 53-51 to Muskegon Oakridge, in the other Wednesday night tourney ballgame.
COVER PHOTO: Hunter Lewellyn (14) scores two of his team-high 14 points with a short jumper.
