By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
ATHENS — For the last couple of years under head coach Ken Sparks, Howardsville Christian’s boys’ basketball team has had their district title dreams stopped short in the district semifinals.
In 2023, the Eagles lost to Marcellus by four points. In 2022, they lost to Lawrence by 13.
This time, however, thanks to a big third quarter and plenty of pressure on the defensive end, the Eagles finally got over the hump and made it to the regional round, defeating Colon 66-52 in Friday’s Division 4 district final in Athens.
Sparks, understandably, was a bit emotional when describing how important the moment was for his squad.
“I’ve been coaching these guys for three seasons now. We were a young varsity team two years ago, and my core guys have been with me now three seasons,” Sparks said. “We’ve fallen short the last two years when we felt like we had the potential to do it. It feels good to finally prove that we could win a district.”
With the win, Howardsville notches its 20th win of the season and sets up a date in the regional round Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Mendon. The Eagles will take on St. Joseph Our Lady of the Lake, who defeated St. Joseph Michigan Lutheran in their district final Friday, 56-31. The winner of that matchup will take on the winner of the Hillsdale Academy-Pittsford matchup Thursday, March 7 at 7 p.m.
Friday’s game got off to a bit of a slow start offensively for both teams, with Colon taking a 5-4 lead with less than three minutes to go in the first quarter after two free throws from Collin Trattles. After that, Kaden Sparks would hit a three-pointer a minute later to take a 7-5 lead followed by Colon’s Dalton Williams sinking two free throws to make it 7-7. Howardsville’s John Paul Rose and Colon’s Kyle Muntain would then trade threes with under 30 seconds left to tie the game at 10, and then Rose would hit a jumper with four seconds left to give the Eagles a 12-10 lead after the first.
“I really felt like we missed a lot of shots early on that we would normally hit, so it made it closer than I would’ve liked starting out,” Sparks said. “But I was happy with the second quarter, where we finally broke away and got a comfortable lead.”
And comfortable that lead would become for the Eagles, as Rose’s jumper would be the start of an 11-0 run for the Eagles that lasted until nearly halfway through the second quarter. Colin Muldoon would hit two free throws then notch a putback to make it 16-10, and after a Colon timeout, Kaden Sparks would hit a floater and a three-pointer in subsequent possessions to expand the Eagles’ lead to 21-10. Muntain would hit a three-pointer to end the Howardsville rally, but the Eagles would extend their lead to 28-19 at the half.
Colon would make things interesting at the start of the second half, going on a 6-0 run with a couple layups by Maverick Downs and a jumper from Williams to cut the Magi’s deficit down to just three points, 28-25, within the first 90 seconds of the third quarter.
“We expected them to be able to come back like they did in the third quarter; we warned the guys in the locker room,” Sparks said, giving Kudos to Colon’s effort in the first part of the second half. “If you come down from double-digits to cut it to three in the second half, I mean, that doesn’t happen by accident.”
However, the Magi rally would be short lived, as Colon’s shooting went ice cold and Howardsville responded with its second big run of the night, going on a 15-0 run over the next three minutes, eight of those points coming from Kaden Sparks, to take a commanding 43-25 lead with three and a half minutes to go. The lead would hold until the end of the third quarter, with the Eagles up 51-36.
From there, it was all Howardsville. The lead would grow to 19 points midway through the quarter, but Colon’s Dominic Mock would hit a couple of three-pointers to get the deficit back to 14 points, 61-47. However, the Magi played the fouling game the last three minutes of the game, sending Howardsville to the line for 14 free throws, but hitting only five of them down the stretch. However, Colon could not capitalize, with Williams hitting a three and a jumper to score the team’s last five points of the ballgame. Howardsville would run out the final minute of clock and celebrate with the district trophy after, the players lifting their coach in the air with the trophy on the court.
Kaden Sparks led the way for Howardsville on the evening, scoring 29 points, 12 of them coming in the Eagles’ big 23-point third quarter alone. Rose had 16 points, Colin Muldoon had 12 points, and Dylan Muldoon added nine to round out the scoring.
“I’m just proud beyond words with their effort,” Ken Sparks said. “I felt like we had, I told them this in the locker room and told some people during the day earlier, that last night’s practice was, in my opinion, the best practice we had all year. What a time to have that.”
Sparks also pointed out the play of the Muldoon brothers, who held Colon’s top two scorers, Williams and Mock, under their season average.
For the Magi, Williams was their leading scorer with 16 points, followed by Mock with 12 points and Muntain with nine points. Downs had eight points, Kayden LaClair had five points and Trattles had two points to round out the scorebook.
Colon head coach Steve Vinson was proud of his team for their effort this season following the loss.
“We played a pretty good team tonight,” Vinson said. “We won seven or eight games to end the season, and to come in here and play like we’ve done and to overcome some of the obstacles we did this year, I’m proud of this team.”
Looking ahead, Ken Sparks said he looks forward to taking on Our Lady of the Lake, a team they lost to twice in conference play earlier in the season.
“Our Lady of the Lake, they got us twice, but both times were very competitive, close games,” Sparks said. “I think if we play the way we did tonight, I really like our chances to get to the regional final next week.”
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@acnccrtest.c1.biz.