Hinkle, Jacobs enjoy one last win in old gym

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Jim Hinkle wanted one more special night in the cozy confines of the old main gym at Jacobs.

He got it Friday night, and he'll certainly remember it for a long time.

The Golden Eagles used the energy of the near-full gym to start the game on a 22-6 run and went on to defeat Prairie Ridge, 70-48, in Fox Valley Conference Valley Division boys basketball action.

"This was awesome," said Hinkle, who is retiring at the end of his 17th season on the Jacobs bench. "The new gym is kind of like a trophy wife. It looks pretty, everyone likes it, says it's beautiful. It's got no substance. It's got no heart. It's got nothing this gym had. This is the good wife."

Hinkle, who is in his 38th season of being a head coach, made the request to play one game in the main gym earlier in the season. A lot of work needed to be done in order to get the gym ready. Lights had to be replaced. The scoreboard on one end of the gym and the sound system needed repairs. Hinkle joked he probably owed the maintenance crew some money.

"That other gym, I know the community loves it and everyone thinks it's wonderful. This is where it's at," Hinkle said. "The atmosphere that you can create here far exceeds anything you can get over there."

The "Back to the Future" theme for the night produced an extremely loud environment. And the Golden Eagles (15-13, 8-4) fed off that energy.

Jacobs hit 6 of its first 8 shots, including three 3-pointers, and hit 7-of-9 free throws in the opening 6½ minutes to lead 22-6. Will Schwerdtmann scored 10 points and Lake Ojo added 7 in the first quarter as the Golden Eagles led 22-8 heading to the second.

"I remember coming here when I was 7 years old, sitting way up there when they used to have seats there, just watching John Moran and all them play," said Schwerdtmann said, pointing at what used to be the balcony of seating on the visiting side.

In the final three quarters, the Golden Eagles' lead only fell into single digits for 15 seconds in the second quarter.

Ojo finished with 17 points and 6 rebounds. Schwerdtmann had 15 points. Nick Ledinsky added 11 points and Ryan Billings had 9.

Steven Ticknor led Prairie Ridge (8-16, 5-7) with 11 points. Ryan Gilbert added 10.

With a minute remaining the Jacobs student section started chanting, "We love Hinkle. We love Hinkle." All adding one more memory for Hinkle.

"We wanted to get this win, his last game in here, and get him a nice win," Schwerdtmann said. "I think we did that tonight."