Northlake Christian School did some long distance dialing Tuesday night as the Wolverines canned nine 3-pointers en route to a 67-25 home victory over the Archbishop Hannan Hawks in the season opener for both clubs.

NCS’ Josh Seale connected on four treys in the fourth quarter finishing with 16 points and teammate Carter Fitzgerald also registered 16 points, hitting 6-of-7 free throws. Fitzgerald, who scored 12 of his points in the first half, missed the latter part of the game after suffering a broken nose going up for an inside shot in the third quarter.

Fitzgerald said he hopes the injury doesn’t keep him out of the Wolverines’ lineup.

Northlake Christian School's Carter Fitzgerald goes up for a layup in the first quarter of Tuesday's home opener against Archbishop Hannan. Fitzgerald, who left the game in the third quarter with a broken nose, finished with 16 points to help lead the Wolverines to a 67-25 victory. (Staff Photo by Mike Pervel)

“I just hope I can breathe out of it and continue to play and won’t miss any games. I want to be able to play strong and help my team,” Fitzgerald said.

“We started out a little rusty. It was our first game with the whole team including football players and they only had one practice since the end of the football season,” Fitzgerald said.

“Overall, I thought we got better as the game wore on. In the second half, I thought we played a lot smoother and started hitting some shots. I think we’ll be alright for the season,” Fitzgerald added.

Seale, a wide receiver with the Wolverines’ football team, said he struggled early.

“We only had one practice as a team due to football. I think we did a pretty good defensively. Offensively, we struggled a little bit with our shots. We didn’t have much time to work on that,” Seale said.

“At the beginning, I was getting frustrated with myself because I couldn’t make anything and I’m a shooter. I kept with it and eventually I started hitting my shots. We worked the ball pretty well as a team,” Seale added.

Derek Williams contributed 10 points for the Wolverines including three 3-pointers and played aggressive defense for NCS.

Williams shared his thoughts about the Wolverines’ victory and talked about the aggressive defense.

“Not having a lot of practice time together we could only stress defense. Our main focus was to work on the defense. Playing defense is my favorite part of the game.

I think we did pretty well defensively,” Williams said.

Williams said he’d rather distribute the ball on offense than shoot, but said he will take his 10 points.

Wolverines’ point guard Dane Landry contributed nine points. Landry connected on two 3-pointers. Greg Motichek added six points all in the first half, while Jacob Draffen finished with four for the Wolverines.

Hannan freshman shooting guard Michael Hess topped the Hawks with 12 points all coming in the first half. Hess netted five points in the opening quarter and seven in the second period.

“We hung with them until the fourth quarter and just got tired. Their defensive pressure caused us problems,” Hess said.

Hannan committed 31 turnovers in the ballgame.

The Hawks only dressed out eight players and were without senior Ben Condon, who is recovering from a broken hand, which he suffered during the football season.

“We don’t have much depth. We are looking to improve this season,” Hess added.

Chad Boihem and Jess Thurman finished with four points each for the Hawks, while Andrew Arceneaux contributed three points and Tyler Bonura added a field goal.

NCS raced out to an 8-0 lead before Boihem canned one of two free throws at the 5:35 mark to get Hannan on the board. The Wolverines held a 15-6 first quarter advantage with Fitzgerald tallying five points and Motichek four to spark the Wolverines’ attack.

NCS opened the second quarter scoring six straight including a trey by Williams. The Wolverines took advantage of four straight Hawks’ turnovers. Hess hit a short jumper to stop the run with 6:03 left in the half. Following an NCS turnover, Hannan’s Bonura hit a field goal and the Hawks trailed 21-10 at the 5:11 mark.

NCS went on a seven point run with Fitzgerald scoring five points and Motichek adding a field goal to give NCS a 28-10 lead before Hannan’s Boihem made a field goal and netted a free throw after being fouled to cut the lead to 28-13.

The Wolverines’ Landry drained a 3-pointer and Fitzgerald clicked on two free throws to build a 33-13 margin. Hannan’s Hess bottomed out a 3-pointer with 48 seconds left in the half and closed the quarter with another long jumper to cut the NCS lead to 33-18 at halftime.

With Hannan trailing 38-21, Thurman was fouled attempting a 3-pointer. He made two of the three charity tosses with 3:12 left in the third quarter. Unfortunately for Hannan, they wouldn’t score again until there was only 1:10 left in the game. NCS turned up its defensive pressure forcing eight consecutive turnovers. The Wolverines rattled off the next 27 points, while holding the Hawks scoreless until Thurman broke the drought making a basket. The Wolverines limited the Hawks to seven points in the second half.

NCS coach Andy Allen he was pleased with the victory after only having his entire team together for just one practice with the football players joining the squad.

“Hannan did a good job of packing in the zone early in the game. They made us shoot it from the outside. With the limited practice time, we weren’t making any shots. We finally got some shots to go in the third and fourth quarters,” Allen said.

Allen said his team played a strong defensive game.

“We had to find a way to get some easy baskets. Forcing the turnovers and turning up the tempo a bit is a good way to do that.”