Hinkle notches 400th win as Jacobs prevails
Jim Hinkle had absolutely no idea.
In his 29th season, Hinkle registered his 400th high school coaching victory as his Jacobs boys basketball team opened the Golden Eagle Classic with a hard fought 64-53 win over pesky Marian Central Saturday night in Algonquin.
"I had no knowledge of the milestone," said Hinkle. "I have obviously had great players. But, I am not done yet."
Upset-minded Marian Central was the aggressor early on. The Hurricanes made their first 3 shots including 3-pointers by Andy Stochl and Chris Casey as the Canes led 8-2
with 2 minutes elapsed.
Marian Central's biggest lead was 17-9 on a layup by Casey with 2:22 left in the quarter.
Jacobs woke up from a slow start by scoring the final 9 points of the quarter. Three baskets by Tim Moran keyed the surge and Jacobs led 18-17 after 8 minutes of play. The Golden Eagles never looked back.
Jacobs kept extending its lead throughout the game and held its biggest advantage at 18, 54-36, after a layup by Conrad Krutwig with 6:28 left.
Krutwig paced the Golden Eagles (6-2) with 21 points, 14 rebounds and 5 blocked shots.
"This was a big win for us," said Krutwig. "We knew coach Hinkle was close to 400 wins. He is a great coach and he has done a lot for me. It has been a great experience for me for 4 years."
Moran, who like Krutwig is a 4-year varsity performer, scored 16 with 11 boards and 4 assists.
"It has been a fun 4 years playing for coach Hinkle," said Moran. "Four-hundred wins is a lot of wins. Tonight, we struggled early. We had a lot of miscommunication in the first half. Marian Central played hard and played tough defense. It is good to get that first win in the tournament."
Danny Noonan led Marian Central with 13 points.
"Give Marian Central a lot of credit," said Hinkle. "They played good hard defense and physically kept us off the blocks. They did a good job on Conrad. It took us a while to get the mismatches we wanted. We finally were able to get Conrad some easy shots later in the game."