Memories of 2021 fuel the 2023-24 Hoban high school girls basketball team's title dreams
Mackenzie Edingburgh and Mayana Pooler can retrace the 199-mile trip to Dayton Arena by heart.
If you’d like to know where the bus stopped for gas or what the team ate on the way down to Hoban’s first state semifinal appearance in 25 years just ask.
The two can tell you all about the magical trip the girls basketball team took in 2021.
It’s what is pushing them in this, their final season with the Knights, and what drives every program to greatness.
“Going to state freshman year was really exciting for not just me, but also the other seniors on our team,” Edingburgh said. “We really have that desire to go back down.”
Add senior Devin Harris to the mix and you’ll see why the Hoban Knights are together as one and hoping a 16-3 regular-season record turns into 24-3 by the time the ride comes to a complete and final stop.
That state final will once again be in Dayton, where Hoban hopes to add its first championship banner since 1988.
“We don't necessarily talk about the state tournament itself, but we do talk about how every year our seniors are the leaders and get us to the first championship, which is the district championship,” Hoban coach Pam Davis said. “The reason we have to dream big is because we're not in a league, so there is no league championship first.
"We just talk about how they have to not only tell the underclassmen how it feels to be down there, but they actually have to demonstrate skills and a high basketball IQ and a gut-check type of mentality.”
Hoban girls basketball can play any style and win
So far, these Knights have checked all the boxes.
Try to run them out of the gym like Lutheran East did and they’ll put 71 points on you. Make it a gritty game like Wadsworth did in the season finale and Hoban will grind out a 34-20 victory.
Both styles work for the Knights, who enter the Division I Northeast 3 District seeded No. 1.
“Man, I would say playing games like tonight (against Wadsworth), it really builds our team,” sophomore Niera Stevens said. “When we have to face a team who is ready for what we have to bring, we always know that if we work better together, we can overpower them.
“We love these games. Our coaches preach defense, so when we can make a good team look ugly, it just makes us look amazing. That tells us that we are doing something right.”
Only Laurel, Louisville and Green have figured out the Knights.
Those three teams won by two, two and seven points.
The past leads the future with this Hoban girls basketball team
Stevens (12.0 points per game, 5.2 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 3.2 steals) and Edingburgh (10.5, 2.8, 2.4, 2.3) lead the team, but the scoring can come from anywhere with Harris, Pooler and Makenzie Grant rounding out the starting five.
“First and foremost, it makes us difficult to defend because everybody can contribute,” Davis said. “It’s not like we’re one kid and you shut that kid down and then everybody else is kind of speechless. I think that not every kid has to have their best game in order for us to win. That's our advantage.”
If there’s an X factor with this bunch, it’s that they’ve never finished a season without a district title.
That said, a 70-45 loss in the regional semifinals to Midview last season still sticks in the back of everyone’s mind.
“It gets brought up all the time,” Edingburgh said. “Our coaches mention that feeling. We don’t ever want to feel like that again, and I think that makes us dangerous moving forward.”
It’s a determination that comes with a bull’s-eye, but the way they see it is that the bull’s-eye means everyone else is in their rearview mirror and they’re looking straight ahead with the best view possible.
“We know the target has been on our back all year round,” Stevens said. “From summer to now and going into playoffs with that target on our back just fills us up even more to just have that courage and that confidence to go into these games and show people why we're the No. 1 team.”
Contact Brad Bournival at bbournival@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @bbournival
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: OHSAA girls basketball: Hoban has what it takes to win state
