Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Hubbard’s Addalyn Manzo (11) and Khamyah Howell (14) defend and trap Lakeview’s Paige Schwartz (22) in the backcourt on Thursday night at Hubbard.

HUBBARD — Hubbard jumped out early and never looked back on Thursday night.

The Eagles overcame turnovers and some late missed shots to hold off Northeast-8 Conference foe Lakeview 46-40 with a wire-to-wire victory to ring in the new year.

“It shows the resilience of the team. It’s probably the best we’ve been all season long,” Hubbard head coach Pat Manzo said. “I kept telling them, we’re getting open looks, we just have to finish them. We gotta keep pushing and pushing and pushing. I said if you’re missing layups, just get it back on defense –cause a turnover, get a steal, get a rebound and push it again. Eventually they’re going to fall and we kept doing it.”

Hubbard’s trapping and defensive pressure had the Bulldogs flummoxed early on.

The Eagles bolted out to an early 10-3 lead and held a three-point lead by the end of the first quarter thanks to nine first-quarter points by Jillian Palumbo. As Hubbard struggled to deal with Lakeview’s own pressure, Palumbo carried the Eagles’ offense early on.

Sophie Irwin did the same for Lakeview’s offense in the first half, as she hit three 3-pointers on the way to finishing with 13 points on four made threes.

“We wanted to press the whole game,” Manzo said. “We have another zone, but we didn’t go to it today. We wanted to stay in 2-3 and we wanted to pop on their three-point shooters. Irwin made a bunch of them in the first half, but we stuck with it. We made an adjustment — we started spreading out a little more to cut down on the threes.”

Eventually, Lakeview’s turnovers against Hubbard’s defense started to pile up.

According to Lakeview head coach Jason Lee, each team turned the ball over 22 times, and by halftime, the Eagles had grown their lead to 10 (28-18).

“They scored on their turnovers, we did not,” Lee said. “We would get a turnover, and then we turned it over to them. I think that there’s little things you can work on, and that’s one of the big things we talked about.

“We would break the press, and then we were our own worst enemy. I don’t want to take anything away from Hubbard, but at the end of the day, you break the press, you turn around, you’re wide open and you throw the ball out of bounds. We need to work on ourselves. Hubbard did a nice job, but I don’t think their press necessarily beat us. I think we beat ourselves.”

In the second half, the Eagles’ struggles to make layups in the paint almost ended up costing them their lead.

Hubbard was 6-for-24 from the floor in the second half and only made two field goals in the fourth quarter. However, those two made shots ended up helping the Eagles put the game away.

With Hubbard clinging to a three-point lead in the final three minutes, Khamyah Howell picked up two steals that she was able to turn into a pair of fast-break layups. She then also knocked down two free throws in the final minute to finish with a game-high 16 points.

“She’s one of the captains. I want the ball in her hands, and I want the ball in Claire (Murphy’s) hands,” Manzo said. “All the girls on the court, I trust them 100%. But (Howell) hit a couple of layups and made a couple of big foul shots, which kept (our lead) around five to seven points. I told them, we’re both in the bonus. We gotta play defense and we can’t put them at the line. Once we get the ball, make them come after us.”

Palumbo finished with 14 points for Hubbard, while Irwin and Mackenzie Stowe led Lakeview with 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Next up, Hubbard will host Badger on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs have a quick turnaround with a road game at Brookfield on Friday at 6 p.m.