Nwoye notches career-high, lady Hawks win at buzzer
By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter
Photo Courtesy of Joe Lepage
Nwoye went off as his Holy Cross Collegiate Hawks cooked the Oilfields High School Drillers 81-73 at the HCC gym.
For the most part this season, Nwoye las led his team in scoring. But last Wednesday, he set a career-high with 58 points. The rest of the Hawks unit only managed to combine for 23 points.
“I honestly didn’t know how many points I scored. I figured that I was in the mid-30s,” said Nwoye. “Then after the game I walked to the bench and my teammates were all smiling and laughing. They couldn’t believe how many points I scored either.”
After the dust settled, Nwoye recorded a career-high 58 points.
“I’ve never scored that many points,” said Nwoye. “That’s crazy.”
The Grade 11 guard opened the game by drilling a pull-up 3. After a couple missed shots, Nwoye went on a mini heat check and canned three straight 3s.
“At that point I knew I was feeling it that night,” said Nwoye. “I scored 15 in the first quarter, so I knew it was going to be a good night, I just didn’t know how good.”
Somewhere, Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant are jealous about how many shots Nwoye hoisted to achieve his career-high.
The three was big for Nwoye, who also set a career-high with 10 triples on 27 attempts. He ended up going 18-41 from the floor.
“I train a lot so I wasn’t tired. I never shoot that much, but it was a close game in the fourth, so my teammates were looking for me to get buckets,” said Nwoye. “I couldn’t have done it without them. They were able to get me the ball in good spots on the floor.”
The Hawks needed Nwoye’s dominating performance to get by the Drillers, as the game was tied 56-56 after three quarters.
“I didn’t know how many points he had either,” said Hawks Head Coach Josh Jalbert. “I figured he was somewhere between 30 to 40. It was a pretty close game, so I wasn’t paying that close of attention to stats.”
Landon Osachuk was the only other member of the Hawks to record double figures, finishing with 10 points.
But the night belonged to Nwoye, who also recorded six rebounds and six steals. But there was one area of the game where Nwoye felt like he could have improved on.
Usually a free throw shooter comfortably living in the 80 per cent range, Nwoye only went 12-for-20 from the charity stripe. Just a couple more baskets and he would have broken the 60-point barrier.
“I can’t complain too much about missed shots – I did take a lot of stupid shots. But free throws are something I pride myself in and something I work on a lot,” said Nwoye. “For some reason I missed quite a bit. Fifty-eight is great, but 60 would have been even cooler.”
Nwoye will have to wait another week to try and get to 60, as the Hawks are off this weekend due to the exam break. For now, Nwoye has the score sheet sitting at home to look back on one day and remind him of his greatness.
“I’ve never seen anyone break 50, let alone into the high 50s,” said Jalbert. “He has been great all season for us and was great that night.”
After the exam break, the Hawks will play a double header Jan. 29 in Airdrie and participate in the Nanton tournament Feb. 2 and 3.
Lady Hawks soar
The Hawks senior girls program was also involved in a thriller earlier this week.
Playing their final game before the exam break, the Hawks hosted the Holy Trinity Academy Knights Jan. 16 at the HCC gym.
The Hawks trailed by two points with the shot clock turned off.
Coming out of a time out, the play was to get the ball down low into the paint with one of their players coming off a double screen. Everything went as planned, as the Hawks got an easy bucket.
After shutting the Knights down on defence, Destiny Stevens was driving to the rack when she got fouled with 8.6 seconds to go. She missed the first shot but knocked down the second shot to go up by one.
The Knights called a time out, advanced the ball and still got a fairly clean shot off in time and even a couple rebound chances, but nothing fell, and the Hawks held on for the win.
“The girls took a huge step forward tonight,” said Hawks Head Coach Joe Lepage. “This was the best game of the season with outstanding defence against a very well-coached team.”
Hope Given was once again the Hawks leading scorer with 12 points despite fouling out early in the fourth.
The Hawks are also off this weekend to allow the students to focus on their exams. They will resume FAC action Feb. 8 when they host the Foothills Composite High School Falcons. They will also take part in the Carstairs tournament which runs Feb. 9-10.