By AMELIO RODRIGUEZ
Dowagiac Daily News

NILES – Tuesday night was Senior Night at Niles High School where the boys’ varsity basketball team hosted Kalamazoo Loy Norrix.

On a night where Niles honored two of their own, seniors David Garner and Mitchell Peterek, it was a senior from Loy Norrix that stole the spotlight as Jeff Hoskins led the Knights to a 55-49 victory over the Vikings.

The Vikings came into the game having won the Big 16 Conference West Division title with a 7-1 record.

The Vikings had also won six straight to improve their record to 14-4. Meanwhile, the Knights were 11-7.

The game started out great for Niles and Garner, as the Vikings built an 18-11 first quarter advantage, led by his 12 points.

With a couple of minutes to go in the second stanza, Niles’ Myles Busby went to the floor with an apparent ankle injury and he would not return before the break.

Niles was outscored in the quarter by a 14-13 tally, but they still maintained a six-point advantage and appeared to be controlling the boards and the game as they led 31-25 heading to the intermission.

The third period turned into one of those quarters that if you are a head coach you would just like to forget.

Busby returned to the lineup to start the period, but re-aggravated the ankle injury and left the game with 6:43 remaining in the quarter.

Garner, who had picked up his third foul with less than a minute to go in the first half, collected his fourth foul with 1:42 remaining and Niles trailing by two points, 35-33.
He then received a technical foul as he was disputing the preceding foul. The technical foul gave him five fouls and his senior night was over, finishing with 18 points.

Unfortunately for Niles, they still had just over nine and a half minutes to play in the game and they had to do so without their two best scorers, Busby and Garner.

“We were missing 30 points of scoring between those two guys,” said Niles coach Todd Pawielski. “We missed the post presence that David had provided all night.”

Trailing by four, 39-35 with less than five seconds remaining, Niles’ Austin Parks would knock down a 3-point bomb from well beyond the arc at the horn to cut the Knights lead to 39-38 after three quarters.

In the second half, Niles would go cold, shooting 4-of-24 from the floor and 7-of-14 from the free throw line.

While Niles couldn’t find the basket, it was Hoskins from Kalamazoo who single handedly buried the Vikings.

The senior, who is averaging 21 points per game, poured in 11 of his game-high 24 points in the final eight minutes.

Even without an answer for Hoskins, Niles managed to cut the Knights’ lead to two points at 50-48 with 2:08 to play, but Niles could only manage one free throw the rest of the way, while Loy Norrix would add five more points.

Niles will play its last game of the regular season on Thursday at Portage Central, and will play the Mustangs again on Monday night in the first round of the Class A District.