Staff photo / Brian Yauger Hubbard’s Kenyen Franklin (1) fights to put a shot up while being defended by Ravenna’s Sean Jordan during the first half of Friday’s Division IV sectional final at Hubbard High School.

HUBBARD — Once Hubbard found its footing in Friday’s Division IV, Northeast 2, sectional final, the Eagles were off to the races.

After going into the break with a four-point lead, Hubbard pulled away in the second half to take down Ravenna, 63-46.

A fiery timeout from Eagles coach Ryan Fitch partway through the second quarter set the tone for the rest of the game. Once the team’s shot selection was fixed, Hubbard took over.

“Offensively some of our shot selections were terrible,” Fitch said. “We just took too many quick shots. We weren’t jump-stopping once we broke the pressure, jumping in the air, a little bit too many turnovers, loose with the ball. We just talked about coming out in the second half. We talked about getting better, more patient on offense, getting better shots.

“Defensively, we talked about (Ravenna’s C.J.) Ross. He’s a really good player, was the Player of the Year in their conference. He’s a legit player. We talked about making sure our help side was a little bit farther over to make that driving lane not look so open. A couple times we got him to give up the ball when I thought maybe he was going to go (to the hoop). Anytime you get the ball out of his hands, we’ll be better off.”

Ross finished the game with a team-high 16 points, but the Eagles held everyone else on the Ravenna roster under double figures.

The senior-laden Hubbard lineup was paced by Braydon Songer, who led the way with 21 points. Jakob Hayes followed close behind with 19 points.

Despite the lull in the second quarter, with the experience the Eagles have, confidence never wavered.

“It does help when you’ve got (experienced) guys out there,” Fitch said. “(Kenyen Franklin) and Songer are four-year letterwinners. Jakob (Hayes) and Anthony Clark are two-year letterwinners. Dylan (BuCher) is a two-year letterwinner now after this year. We have enough experience that we’re not going to go out and get totally rattled in a game like that.”

The 11th-seeded Eagles (16-7) advance to the district semifinals where they’ll take on second-seed Norton on the road.

Fitch already has eyes on his team’s next opponent. While a challenging team, Fitch thinks the Eagles are ready for it.

“They bring quite a bit of challenges,” he said. “They have five guys out there that can penetrate gaps and get to the rim. They run a nice dribble-drive motion. They’ve got shooters. (Two of their players) I don’t know if they’ve missed on the films I’ve watched. We’re gonna have to get to their shooters. We have to contain the dribble-drive. If we don’t contain the dribble-drive on Tuesday, it’s going to be a long night, so we have to buckle down, win our individual battles and see if we can make them take some tough shots, and then we have to rebound and finish that possession.”

Tipoff is set for Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Norton.