Late Hardaway Dunks Lead Boyd Buchanan To DII-A East District 2 Championship

Silverdale Pops Collegedale For No. 3 Seed

Saturday, February 15, 2025
Joy Fisk

The Bucs’ Asa Fortune (4) Jumps for the shot while Notre Dame’s Maximo Santiesteban (2) and Gaas Herman (11) Attempt to Block.
photo by Joy Fisk

With less than a minute left to play in the district championship game, Notre Dame was only down three points, having overcome a significant point deficit early in the game, but two dunks by Boyd Buchanan’s Caleb Hardaway secured the win for the Bucs. The Bucs had a large lead in the first quarter that just proved too difficult for the Fighting Irish to overcome, as they fell 56-48.

Boyd Buchanan head coach Matt Hoppe said of the win, “It was just a testament to our hard work these guys have been putting in since last May when I came, just in the summertime and the fall- a lot of weight room hours, a lot of practice hours, a lot of getting shots up early in the morning. So I’m just proud of our guys and the character they showed tonight.” Graciously acknowledging the strength of their opponent, Hoppe said, “Notre Dame played great- a super well coached team- you know we’ve had three really kind of tough, physical, hard-fought games this year, so I’m just proud of our guys for making some plays down the stretch to win, and coming up with some key rebounds and a stop here and there when we really needed it.”

Notre Dame’s Head Coach Matt Matoh acknowledged what went wrong in the game but was also proud of his players for fighting so hard to get back within range of winning. “The first time we played them early in the season, we didn’t play great. Over at their place about two weeks ago, it was a three-point game with two minutes left, so we knew to expect a battle tonight. Certainly the route that it took to get there- we didn’t plan getting down 18, and then battling back to get it close like that, but we expected a close game and a couple plays short in that fourth quarter, a couple of stops we didn’t get-away from having it be a little bit closer at the end.”

Caleb Hardaway, who has recently been nominated for Mr. Basketball and scored 14 points for the Bucs, expressed excitement about next week’s region games, saying he thinks they’re “the best team in the region.” When asked what contributed to his team’s success, Hardaway said, “We love playing together.”

Notre Dame's Gaas Herman, paced the Irish with 23 points, similarly talked about the love his teammates have for one another being a key factor in their success. Herman is looking forward to playing Monday in a region game and hoping to keep their season going. He expressed love for his team. “I’ve been with them since my freshman year and I just love the bond I have with them.”

Both coaches are proud of how hard their players worked to get to the championship game. Coach Matoh said of his Notre Dame team,“This is a group with not a whole lot of returning varsity players from last year, but the group has grown so much since we started back in November- guys who were playing freshman and JV games last year at this time are pressed into duty in a district championship game and giving it all they got. I’m proud of the effort, you know we got to clean up the execution, but it’s a group of guys that we’re not the biggest or the strongest or the fastest, but we’re gonna compete and give it all they got, and I can’t ask for more than that.”

SILVERDALE 57, COLLEGEDALE 39: In the boys consolation game, Silverdale’s boys were back to hitting effortless threes, landing ten of them in the game, securing their number three seed in the district heading into the region tournament, over Collegedale. Silverdale alumni Houston Holland, who plays basketball for UTC, was in attendance last night, cheering on his younger brother Parker, who scored four of Silverdale's’ ten treys last night.

Region play begins next week, with the final region games scheduled to be played in Knoxville at the end of the week.

Championship Game