Newark 59, Bishop Hartley 46

Wildcats dominate in the second half, led behind Jake Quackenbush monster performance

Written by 270 Hoops staff writer Greg Glasser

NEWARK, OH - With roughly eight months of an offseason, naturally that time leads to chatter, debates and various speculative rankings.

But as the 2025-26 high school season kicked off on Thanksgiving Eve, the time for talk comes to an end and what’s done on the court speaks louder volumes.

And although it was just the first game, Newark senior Jake Quackenbush had enough of the discussions and was ready to show off the work he and his teammates put in throughout the summer and fall as the Wildcats overcame a two-point halftime deficit and comfortably defeated Bishop Hartley 59-46 at home on Wednesday.

“I have a lot of people to prove wrong and I’ve seen a lot of the lists, where we aren’t even ranked top ten in Ohio or I’m not even top seven,” Quackenbush said after the game. “It just pissed me off. I told my team about it, it pissed them off and we want to prove we can compete with anyone.”

From the opening tip, Quackenbush played with the type of edge of a slighted player as he scored an astounding 33 points on 11-of-18 shooting from the field along with six rebounds. He was one make short of going perfect on his nine attempts at the charity stripe.

Newark senior wing Jake Quackenbush put in a dominating 33-point performance against Bishop Hartley. (photo credit: @devynemedia)