Hoy reaches 200 career wins

by Chris Brady  Published:  Friday, December 24, 2010, Standard Journal

MIFFLINBURG — Nothing like squeezing in a couple of milestones to make the season a little merrier in Mifflinburg, right? Eight days after watching his son sink his 1,000th career point, Coach Eldon Hoy led his Wildcats to a convincing 66-45 win over Towanda in the Cats’ Den, tallying his 200th career win as basketball mentor in Mifflinburg.
Zac Hoy drained a game-high 19 points and Corey Murtha and Dillon Culp sank 14 points apiece as the Wildcats improved to 4-0 on the young season. The Black Knights dropped to 1-5.
It was last week that the Mifflinburg faithful were on hand for Zac’s milestone and the troops returned, including a number of Hoy’s former players, to see the elder Hoy reach the 200-win milestone.
“That’s the best part,” said Eldon. “It’s not really seeing former players, but you’re seeing friends. You obviously follow them when they are in college, in life, when they are starting families, starting jobs. It just feels like a big family.”

Before the celebrating began, the game had to be won and the Wildcats, having gone without game action the last eight days, were a little sluggish, however the defense was stifling early and eventually the flow came on offense.
A three-point edge after one quarter of play built to 12 at halftime and when Travis Trutt sank one of two freebies with 5:12 left in the third, the Wildcats had pushed the lead to 20.
Towanda looked early like it wanted to be the more physical team, but the Wildcats’ defense took the Knights out of their game while Murtha and Culp, who combined for two treys apiece in the first half, got the offensive wheels rolling.
“The nine days off, that really didn’t help,” said Zac. “We pride ourselves on defense and we wanted to keep it low scoring, force them into mistakes.”
“Our quickness made a big difference,” said Eldon. “We played with a lot of intensity.
“I thought we shot the ball quickly early, shots we didn’t have to take. We weren’t getting good shots.”
Things changed quickly in the second as the Wildcats scored eight unanswered to grow the lead to 20. Even with liberal substitutions, Mifflinburg didn’t miss a beat.
“We fell into a rhythm offensively,” said Eldon. “I think our knowledge of the game helped.”
“That’s just experience on our part,” said Zac. “We’ve played together since second, third, fourth grade.”
In addition to the trio of Wildcats in double figures, Mifflinburg got nine from Trutt.
The Knights were led by Cody Miller’s 18 points. Joseph Leljedal added 10.
Mifflinburg is back in action Monday in Florida as the Wildcats take on Colts Neck, N.J., at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex.
The milestone
In his 14th season at Mifflinburg, Hoy has set more than a few benchmarks. An alum, he said he, along with much of his coaching staff, “have a stake in it.”
“That’s the pride,” he said.
Hoy has led the Wildcats to four league crowns (three Central Susquehanna Conference, one Heartland Athletic Conference) and coached the first Mifflinburg team to win a state playoff game. He has coached four 1,000-point scorers, led Mifflinburg to four 20-win seasons, including the team that set the all-time Mifflinburg record for wins (26-2). He is also a four-time coach of the year.
“It comes down to, if you want to do something well, you really have to have pride in it,” he said. “We played here and we want to see the program do well.”
“It’s special,” said Zac, of the opportunity to share two milestones in the matter of days. “Since I’ve been young, he’s been a role model for me. He’s helped me become who I am. He’s made me work harder.”

Senior etches name in school history

By Chris Dougherty

MIFFLINBURG — With students dressed up left and right, former players in attendance, and a college recruiter on hand, the stage was set for Zac Hoy.
And he delivered.
The Mifflinburg senior put on a show in the second half as he reached 1,000 points for his career in the Wildcats’ 62-38 thumping of Loyalsock Tuesday night at the Cats’ Den.
Hoy became the first Wildcat since Hannah Allison to join the club, and the first male to do it since Keith Fogel.

“It’s just great,” said Hoy. “To be apart of a group up there with all the great Mifflinburg basketball players is just amazing to me.”
The night did not start easy for the sharpshooting Hoy, who needed 16 points heading into the contest. He missed his first seven shots from the field and had just three points via free throws with almost three quarters expired. Struggling with his shot, Hoy instead began to make plays other than scoring, as he accounted for three first-half assists.
His teammates also helped to pick up the slack in the early going. Corey Murtha and Travis Trutt each dropped 10 points in the first half as Mifflinburg (3-0), thanks to a 21-0 run, jumped out to a 30-13 lead at the half. Loyalsock’s best player, Tyler Bogaczyk, was in foul trouble from the start and spent the majority of the night on the bench.
“That helped us out a lot,” said head coach Eldon Hoy of Bogaczyk’s foul trouble. “I told Travis and Corey at halftime ‘way to pick it up’, because he (Zac) was nervous. It was just another display of how much of a team this is.”
At halftime, Zac Hoy had teammates and coaches telling him different aspects of why his shooting was off.
Whatever they said, it worked, because after the break he started to feel it.
The run began late in the third quarter. A bucket by Loyalsock big man Jason Haladay cut the Wildcats’ lead to eight. On the
ensuing possession, after a screen left him open beyond the arc, Zac Hoy took an extra second, set himself, and dropped in his first bucket of the game with 1:19 left in the third quarter. He would sink a pair of free throws to end the third period with nine points as his team was up 45-28.
The fourth began with a bucket from Corey Murtha in the lane, and then Hoy took center stage. The senior guard made a pair of buckets and two free throws to sit at 999. Then, he did what he’s done to teams so many times before — nailed a trey — splashing home a 3-ball to put him over the mark at 1,002. The game was stopped and the celebration began as Fogel, Brad Musser and several other members of the 1,000 point club were in attendance and joined Hoy at halfcourt for a picture.
“I really didn’t think it was going to happen at halftime,” said Zac Hoy. “I really looked up to Brad and Keith, and I remember both of their nights scoring 1,000, so now for them to be here for when I did it really meant a lot to me.”
The senior said it is a weight off his shoulders that he’s glad happened when it did.
“It’s better that I was able to do this early on in the year and it was really big to do it at home,” said Zac Hoy. “For awhile I thought I might need the next home game, but things started to roll there in the second half. The most important thing, though, is that we got the win. That’s all I really care about is that we won.”
The decisive basket put the Wildcats up 56-32 — their largest lead of the game — and the bench was emptied as the crowd continued to roar. Zac Hoy would be lifted onto the shoulders of his peers after the buzzer went off.
Hoy finished with 18 points, four rebounds and three assists. Murtha had 18 as well to go with four boards, an assist and one block. Trutt added 13 and snatched three rebounds..
The accomplishment for Zac Hoy is another name to add on the banner hanging in the Cats’ Den. A bigger prize, though, is a coach and player sharing a priceless moment as father and son.
“It’s indescribable,” said Eldon Hoy. “Just knowing how much time we have put into it, and not just us, but our family as well. His mother was the driving force to get him to play all the back in the AAU days.
“But he wanted to do all the offseason work and good things come to hardworking people. I just feel so great for him.”

Team drains nine treys in rout

By Chris Dougherty

MIFFLINBURG — To say the Mifflinburg boys basketball team got off on the right foot would be an understatement. The Wildcats got on the right foot and stomped on it as they dominated Bald Eagle, 74-42, in their own tip-off tournament Friday night.

Mifflinburg came out red hot from the start. After controlling the tip, Travis Trutt immediately converted a three-point play to get things started. The Wildcats would pull away early with a 17-0 run in the opening frame. Zac Hoy, who made his first seven shots, scored 10 of those points and finished with a game-high 22 points.

“We wanted to make sure we kept the game up for our style,” said Zac Hoy. “Once we got into the flow of things everything started to fall for us. That run helped. Our defense helped and we were able to get lot of breakaway layups.”

After taking a 28-10 lead after one, Mifflinburg stayed on the gas and built a 50-23 lead at the half. The Wildcats opened the third with a 16-0 run in which six different players scored. Bald Eagle scored just one point in the third quarter on a free throw with two minutes left.

Mifflinburg canned nine 3-pointers in the game and had three score in double figures. Corey Murtha dropped 15 while Travis Trutt added 11. All 11 players for Mifflinburg got into the game, and 10 of them scored.

“It was really good to get off to the good start, especially with guys filling in for Kaleb (Snyder) and Jimmy (Sowers) from last year. To be able to get those guys in was important,” Zac Hoy said. “It’s really good for them to feel confident and for us to feel confident like we’re still the team that we were last year.”

The only flaw in Mifflinburg’s game was foul trouble in the first half. The Wildcats committed their seventh foul just before the end of the first quarter.

“I think we had some fouls that were hustle fouls, and we’ll take that,” said head coach Eldon Hoy. “We were in the wrong place at the wrong time for the most part, but we weren’t just hacking away which is good.”

Mifflinburg will take on West Perry, which defeated Hughesville in the opener, for the tip-off championship at 7:30 p.m. tonight back at the Cats’ Den. The Mustangs should present a better challenge for the Wildcats.

“It’s great to get off on the right foot, especially when you don’t know anything about the other team. I don’t think you could script it any better tonight, but tomorrow is a different challenge,” Eldon Hoy said. “We will have our hands full.”

“They’ll be tough,” added Zac Hoy. “It will definitely be a good contest for us.”