HS BOYS BASKETBALL: ATHENS TAKES SHOOTOUT OVER CANDOR TO WIN CHOP OUT HUNGER CHAMPIONSHIP (December 30, 2025)

By TIM TAYLOR
Valley Sports Report
ATHENS — Four Athens players and three more from Candor scored in double figures as the Wildcats won a 67-65 shootout at the 2025 CHOP Out Hunger Holiday Basketball Tournament here Tuesday.

The Wildcats led early, but would have to rally from a 35-30 halftime deficit to claim the championship.

“This team is coming together,” Athens coach Jim Lister said. “They're playing good team basketball. They're fighting. I'm thrilled with the way they play. Honestly, this is the first time I've ever thought they played great. That's what we needed. I think that's the momentum we needed going into the start of the season, so that was a big win for us.”

“They did a really good job of scoring the basketball in the second half,” said Candor coach Nate Thomas. “When you have No. 5 coming to the rim hard, right hand, he is tough. You know, you have Schultz coming to the basket, he's tough. You got Briggs shooting the ball from the perimeter. You got Friend inside, who did a fantastic job playing with fouls. He really protected the rim in that last period and they did a really good job of scoring the ball in that fourth quarter.”

The Coyotes’ Matt Smith would drain a 3-pointer early in the third quarter to give the Coyotes a 38-30 cushion, but Athens responded with three straight baskets to close the gap to 38-36.

Candor would connect for three consecutive buckets and a 49-41 advantage late in the third quarter, but that’s when the Wildcats made their move.

Eli Hobday and Lucas Schultz knocked down back to back 3-pointers to spark the comeback and the score would be deadlocked at 49 heading into the final frame.

The rally appeared to fizzle as a basket by Jakobe Foster and two buckets from Doanld Makie extended the Candor lead to 55-49, however, the Wildcats’ Aiden Briggs, Nick Grazul, James Friend and Schults combined on a 15-0 run to build a 64-55 advantage.

Smith hit another 3-pointer with 42 seconds left and Foster scored with 31 ticks on the clock to cut the lead to 64-60.

“I did a horrible job of putting my guys in the right spots,” Thomas said. “I mean that, it was terrible coaching on my part. Oh my gosh. In 20 years that might be the worst coaching I've done. I think that we had the opportunity to pull away and I didn't put our guys where they needed to go, and that's on me.”

Adam Kemp and Grazul combined to sink three free throws in the final 30 seconds, allowing Athens to survive a basket by Foster and a trey from Teagan Kwiatkowski.

The Coyotes will put this one behind them and focus on pursuing IAC and Section IV championships.

“The season's long,” Thomas said. “It's a long four months, and we're going to be in other big games, but that one hurts. When you have a lead in the game, you want to try to capitalize and finish it.

“The last two days, we didn't play our style of basketball and you can come up with all the excuses in the book, that we had time, that we haven't played in 13 days or all those things, but the other teams had the same thing and they played well. At some point in time we’ve got to get back to what we do well, and hopefully that's sooner rather than later.”

Lister credits the victory to teamwork.

“It really was,” he said. “I keep preaching our word this year is team. Team play, effort, attitude, mental focus. We talk about it all the time. We don't have a superstar on this team. I don't have anybody that's going to have 1,000 points this year, but I have a lot of good kids and a lot of good basketball players. And if they can come together and play as a team, which we're starting to do, I think we could beat good teams.”

Grazul led the Wildcats with 18 points, followed by Friend with 16, Schultz with 15 and Briggs with 11. Hobday added three points, and Kemp and Wheeler tacked on two apiece.

Makie tallied a game-high 20 points and went 7-for-7 t the charity stripe. Foster scored 18 points and Sheridan tacked on another 11. Smith had eight,Kwiatkowski chipped in with six and Kyle Jantz added two points.

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PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.

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