The Hiram College Terriers men’s basketball team had struggled to find momentum at the start of the season but found that spark after junior guard Trent Jakacki ignited the team with a breakout performance by scoring 46 points, helping the Terriers defeat Hilbert College 91-83 for their first home victory of the season last Friday evening at Hiram College’s Price Gymnasium.
“I think it is always special to win at home in front of our fans and our students,” said Coach Taylor Roth. “Those are always your favorite wins. It is nice to give them a win and have some excitement at Hiram so it meant a lot from that standpoint, and I think for our team it was a kind of a confirmation we can be good when we put it all together.”
Clinging to a 59-56 advantage in the second half, the Terriers’ (2-9, 0-3) offense erupted and was fueled by the 6-foot-1 Jakacki, who keyed a 13-4 run to push Hiram’s advantage to 72-60 by scoring 13 straight points.
“He was in the zone,” said Hiram’s fourth-year coach. “We have all seen it and know he is capable of it and once he saw a couple go down in a row there during that stretch I knew and I think we all knew that he had the opportunity to open the game up and he definitely did that.”
Jakacki had already gotten off to a fast start in the first half, scoring the Terriers’ first 11 points and finishing the half with 20 points, but had cooled off for a brief period but then took over the game.
According to Roth, although the Hawks worked hard to contain him, it was not an option to try to double team him because if they tried that, the could find his open teammate.
Jakacki capped off his big night by scoring a career-high 46 points on 18-of-27 shooting, including going seven-of-nine from beyond the arc, grabbing five rebounds and dishing out five assists. His record-breaking game tied him for third place on the list of most points scored in a game, trailing only former Terriers’ sensation Rod Swartz.
“I am happy for him,” Roth said. “He puts a lot of work into it and guys who can score like that, it does not happen by accident. He has worked at it a lot and it is just kind of a culmination of all of the effort he has put in. I am certain this will not be the last big game he has for us at Hiram.”
What made the evening even sweeter for Jakacki was that his big performance came in front of his hometown crowd, being a 2021 graduate of Crestwood High School where he finished his four-year career as a 1,000-point scorer.
Despite Jakacki’s big night, Hiram’s lead dwindled from 18 points to nine points in the final few minutes because of poor ball control but the Terriers ultimately prevailed.
“I think as a group we didn’t do a good job of taking care of the ball in the last two minutes,” acknowledged Roth. “That’s kind of what allowed them to make a quick little run at it down at the end so as a team we need to do a better job of securing the ball and not turning it over late when we have the lead.”
Jakacki put Hiram in control at the beginning of the game but the Hawks never went away, always making runs to trim the lead to single digits. Although Hilbert did a nice job at staying in striking distance, Roth said the Terriers’ zone defense gave them the advantage.
According to Roth, Hiram recognized that the Hawks were an athletic squad and were strong in transition but were not a strong perimeter shooting team, relying on driving to the basket on most possessions.
“We had a feeling we could structure it in a way that made them breathe and did not give them opportunities around the basket easily,” he added. “The other part of it is that they are really good at transition and really good at getting out and running so playing zone would make it a little easier to slow them down because you are running to an area not a man.”
Hiram has struggled to find consistency this season because of multiple injuries to their starting players but Roth said they started gaining traction in a 104-95 loss against Case Western Reserve University on Dec. 11.
The Terriers may have lost that game, but Roth noted his team showed flashes of its potential and it carried over to the victory against Hilbert College.
Their momentum faded when they lost against Adrian College in a road game on Monday evening, dropping their record to 2-10 (0-3) for the season.
After celebrating the winter holidays, Hiram returns to the court when it competes against North Coast Athletic Conference foe Oberlin College for a road game on Jan. 3 at 7 p.m.
