Hargrove's Triple-Double Paces Men's Basketball to Win
Saturday, January 5, 2013|
It’s been said that the third time’s the charm.
It was a late birthday present for Hargrove, who turned 21 yesterday. He had come up just shy of a triple-double two other times during his career, including in a win over Moravian three weeks ago.
He finished with 12 points, 13 rebounds and 10 blocks in just 25 minutes of action. He now has 155 career blocks, just 11 shy of breaking the Muhlenberg school record. His 10 blocks tied his own record from 2010 for most blocks in a game.
“It feels great,” said Hargrove of his achievement. “I didn’t even know that I had gotten it and when the coaches told me, I didn’t even believe them.
“I appreciate the win more than the triple-double,” he added.
The win came against a Green Terror squad that came in red hot, with a six-game winning streak that included a tournament championship at Trinity (Conn.) last week. Although McDaniel jumped to a 5-0 lead in the first 59 seconds of play, Hargrove had a layup and sophomore Malique Killing scored three quick baskets to give the Mules (8-4, 4-2) an 8-5 lead.
McDaniel (7-5, 2-4) regained a one-point lead with 11:19 to play in the first half, but the Mules went on a 21-4 run, beginning with a three-point play by Hargrove. They extended their lead to 20 by halftime.
“Something we’ve been focusing on all year is just going onto the next play,” said Hargrove. “Going into the second half, we knew that they were going to make a run so mentally, we were prepared for it.”
Killing finished with a game-high 20 points. Freshman Alec Stavetski added 18, and he and Killing each had two steals.
The Mules held McDaniel to just 21.6-percent shooting from the field and had a 61-42 rebounding advantage.
In his first career start, junior James Albano pulled down 12 boards. Senior Matt O’Hara flirted with a double-double, dishing out 10 assists and grabbing eight rebounds.
“It was a team effort on the defensive boards and that’s what we’ve been stressing all week,” stated Hargrove. “We needed to stop them on the offensive end and keep them out of the paint and I think we did that really well tonight.”
Senior Hunter Forsman had seven rebounds of his own and tied his career high with three blocks. As a team, Muhlenberg totaled 14 blocks, one shy of the school record.
“We put in a strong four days of practice right away after the break and didn’t give up on any of those four days. I was really proud of how we did that,” added Hargrove. “We really got behind our captains, Matt [O’Hara] and Austin [Curry], and they held us together.”
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