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 (Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) caption:
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Nolan Provides Offense, Emotional Fire As Hun Boys' Hoops Edges Mercersburg
By Bill Alden
Seconds after the Hun School Boys basketball team edged Mercersburg Academy last Saturday afternoon, Hun senior star Leo Nolan pounded the mats on the wall of the gym with his fists.
Nolan's emotional outburst was triggered by part relief and part frustration as the Raiders struggled mightily to squeak past an unheralded Mercersburg squad 38-37.
In reflecting on the win which snapped Hun's two-game losing streak, Nolan acknowledged that the Raiders are out of sync.
"A win is a win," said the 6'7 Nolan, who scored a team-high 14 points as the Raiders improved to 9-3.
"We just have to refocus and start playing the way we did before Christmas. I don't know what it is; we just haven't been playing the way we should be. We're just trying to figure it out right now."
Nolan and his teammates got a tongue-lashing from head coach Jon Stone in the team huddle before the start of the fourth quarter.
Stone's face turned red and the veins in his neck bulged as he tried to light a fire under his team which had fallen to Germantown Academy and Solebury in its first two games of 2005.
"We needed that," said Nolan, referring to Stone's tirade. "It helps us, it wakes us up. We had lost two in a row and we needed this win. It was a close game and we had to win it anyway we could."
In terms of offense, Nolan emerged as the Raiders' go-to guy in the win over Mercersburg. "I was just doing what I could for the team," said Nolan, who was the only Hun player to crack double figures. "I was open a lot. The team helped me out with a lot of good passes. I was taking what they gave me."
Nolan's leadership role for Hun goes beyond scoring points. "I'm one of the captains this year," said Nolan, a Summit, N.J. resident who is in his second year with the Hun program. "I try to get the team up for games and to get everybody to play hard. I try to make us the best team we can be."
In serving as captain, Nolan has tried to emulate Noah Savage, a Hun star last year who is currently starting for the Princeton University men's team.
"Noah is one of my best friends," said a smiling Nolan who will be competing against Savage next winter when he plays at Columbia. "He was a great captain last year, a lot of what he did rubbed off on me. He showed a lot of leadership and I'm trying to follow his lead."
Hun coach Stone sees Nolan as a leading figure for the Raiders. "He has the ability to score, no question about that," said a subdued Stone.
"He's a little bit more comfortable in tight games because he has been in these situations. He's certainly provided us with scoring punch. He is an emotional leader for this team."
After watching his team narrowly escape defeat on Saturday, Stone has mixed emotions about where the team's at.
"I think we're struggling a bit with chemistry and flow," acknowledged Stone. "The effort is there. We have to play a little smarter, a little sharper."
On Saturday, the Raiders struggled in rotating on defense and playing patiently on offense. "Those two things don't necessarily go together," explained Stone, who is in his fifth year at the helm of the Hun program.
"Rotating on defense is being aggressive, going 100 m.p.h.; being patient on offense means slowing things down. It's a hard balance and we haven't found that balance."
Even though his team admittedly won ugly against Mercersburg, Stone believes the victory will put the Raiders on the right track.
"Every team, every year, you're going to have some ups and downs," said Stone, whose team plays at Blair on January 12 before hosting Peddie on January 15.
"It's part of life, I think. Were having some downs right now. It's OK. It's how you respond that makes the difference. We responded today with a win and hopefully we'll respond with more wins."
In Nolan's view, the Raiders will be better in the long run for having to fight through their current lull.
"I think this rough patch, even though it's not where we want to be, will help us later," maintained Nolan.
"Maybe we will be having a tough time then and we'll look back at this and think that we got through this, we made it. I think it just makes us a stronger team."
