Kaufman’s magical stretch leads Hawks into Elite Eight with 79-43 win over Windham
He more than made up for it in the first four minutes of the second half.
The Hiland Hawks, fresh off of a scintillating 67-58 win over No. 1 ranked Zanesville Rosecrans Saturday, March 12, came into the Regional semifinal against Windham knowing that a let-down could be in order. For the first half, the Hawks played fairly listlessly, giving up a ton of offensive rebounds to the much smaller Bombers, giving up a number of scoring opportunities by not protecting the baseline and playing sluggishly on defense in general.
That the Hawks held a comfortable 37-21 halftime lead should have been a clue to the Bombers that the night would not end well.
By the time the junior All-Ohioan Kaufman finished off a four minute run to begin the third quarter, in which he was involved in all but three of Hiland’s points in a 20-5 run, the Hawks had sufficiently served notice that the Bombers would be no match for them, crushing Windham 79-43 to move into the Canton Regional final versus undefeated McDonald Friday, March 18, at 7:30 p.m.
“Dylan didn’t play a good first half and he knew that,” said Hiland coach Mark Schlabach of his star. “What he did shows a lot about him. He turned a game that was still in doubt pretty quickly.”
The Bombers came in known for their deep range shooting ability, so Schlabach had his players push out around the perimeter to stop a barrage of 3-pointers. Schlabach said that may have been part of the undoing on the glass in the first half, where the much smaller Windham players had their way on the offensive board.
Regardless, the Hawks jumped out to an early 9-2 lead, getting a 3-pointer from Kaufman, a Noah Boyd turnaround in the lane, a Jason Miller drive and a Luke Burch drive along the baseline to erase Windham’s only lead.
“We may have over-hyped a little bit about getting out to defend on their shooters,” said Schlabach, “but we were definitely worried about (their ability to shoot from long range). We made some adjustments in the second half and that helped.”
Windham hung around, cutting the deficit to 14-9, but the Hawks closed out the first quarter on a 6-2 run, with Seger Bonifant scoring twice and finding Jalen Miller on a back door cut for a 20-11 lead.
While the Hawks continued to play uninspired basketball, the lead actually grew. Kaufman hit two free throws, Bonifant hit a 15-footer, Neil Gingerich scored on a put-back and Jason Miller canned a triple to make it 29-15. The Bombers cut it to 31-21, but the half ended with three straight scores, with Luke Burch igniting the run with an assist to Boyd and a blitzing drive on the baseline, and a Kaufman bucket inside.
“Luke came in and really gave us a spark,” said Schlabach. “That’s what we’ve been waiting for from him. Our bench did a nice job, and those three buckets we got before the half were nice, timely buckets.”
If the Bombers had any hopes, they were dashed by Kaufman in the first four-plus minutes of the second half.
Kaufman got things rolling on an easy layup off an inbound play under the bucket. He then hit three straight 3-pointers on consecutive trips down the floor, around a Kyle McManus trey for a 48-24 lead.
Following a Windham time out, in which the Bombers obviously began focusing on Kaufman the scorer, the only thing that changed in the Dylan Kaufman Show was in the manner that the junior decided to break Windham’s collective back.
After Braden Conn split a pair of free throws, and scored on a nifty pass from Bonifant, Kaufman began feeding his teammates like starving baby birds begging for worms. In quick succession he hit Burch, Jason Miller and Boyd for easy layups, as Hiland kicked its transition game into high gear.
At 57-26, there was now no doubt that Hiland would be the team advancing to the Elite Eight.
“I thought we played a much better second half,” said Schlabach of the Hawks effort. “We weren’t at our best tonight, whether it was a hangover from Saturday’s win or nerves from guys playing here for the first time. But we did play better as time went on. The first half we didn’t do a lot of things right.”
Having played at such a high level of play over the past six or eight games, even in games that they have blown out their opponents yet remained extremely focused, Schlabach said that this little hiccup doesn’t concern him much.
“I told the kids that, if a team is lucky, they will have that one game they don’t play
heir best in the tournament run and survive,” said Schlabach. “They know we didn’t play our best, but I was pleased with the way we responded the second half.”
And being too brutally tough on a team that just won its regional semi-final game by 36 points may be nitpicking, but Schlabach said that reaching their potential has been this team’s goal from Day 1 this summer.
“That’s been their focus and Friday’s game is the one they have been waiting for,” said Schlabach of the matchup with McDonald, who will try to reel in the Hawks with pressure defense and an up-tempo style.
Kaufman ended the evening with a game-high 18 points, while Bonifant added 13, Jalen Miller nine, Boyd and Burch eight apiece and Gingerich and Jason Miller added seven in a well-balanced Hiland attack. Matt Knight led the Bombers, who ended the evening with five 3-pointers, with 13, while McManus chipped in with a dozen.
Published: March 15, 2011
