RallyNorth.net

Hojlo, Pelham mean business, roll over Kearsarge

Friday, February, 29 By Hector Longo
Staff writer

Todd Kress may be greedy, but at least he is honest.

"We're going to need him to do that three more times," said the Pelham coach.

Kress' junior sensation Justin Hojlo had just delivered a Class I first-round playoff masterpiece, leading the Pythons over Kearsarge, 65-44.

"He's just a very special young man," said Kress. "When he shows up to play, there aren't many teams who can handle him. He's been this good all year, as far as being the man on the court."

The 5-foot-10 Hojlo, who averaged 20.3 points a game over the regular season, tossed in 35 last night for the Pythons, who next will play the winner of tonight's Hanover/Coe-Brown matchup. That quarterfinal game will be Sunday at 3 p.m. at UNH's Lundholm Gymnasium.

"It felt a little different, and it was great, I just felt good," said Hojlo, who added 10 rebounds and sparkling floor game, playing all but the last 86 seconds.

"We just played such good defense tonight it didn't matter." Hojlo knocked the wind out of Kearsarge by controlling the first quarter.

The Pythons scored seven hoops in grabbing a 15-10 lead after one quarter. Hojlo had five of them and assisted on the other two.

Hojlo followed his back-to-back 3-pointers early in the second with a steal, coast-to-coast drive and traditional 3-point play. That pushed the lead to 24-11, and the rout was on.

Kress said, "His teammates do a great job of getting open, and he'll hit them for layups. We've seen it a couple times this year, and we saw it again in the third quarter tonight."

Defensively, Pelham got a boost from seniors Jamie Vaiknoras and Dan Trainor, who spent the bulk of the night shadowing Kearsarge gunner Sam Young.

Young nearly single-handedly beat the Pythons in the regular season before Pelham finally pulled away for a 5-point win. Not last night.

Young had to work for every shot and finished with a quiet 10 points.

Meanwhile, the Hojlo highlight reel grew by the possession. Pelham played its third straight game without senior guard Ricky Costa (coach's decision) but had little trouble rolling to its 14th straight win.

Costa's status for Sunday's quarterfinal is yet to be determined, according to Kress.