EAST CHICAGO | Almost everything about Hobart's win over E.C. Central on Tuesday night had the showings of the season's first game.

Except Brickies senior Amanda Corral.

With her collegiate basketball decision weighing on her mind, Corral looked to be in midseason form as she scored 27 points to lead Hobart to a 58-43 win at the John A. Baratto Athletic Center.

"We just were getting the job done," Corral said. "We all started making shots toward the end so that helped us too.

"We really weren't trying hard in the first half. Just came out slow."

Corral has stayed quiet about where she will attend school next year, even keeping Hobart coach Mike Hamacher in the dark until today's signing day. But after sitting most of the second quarter with two fouls, Corral scored 15 points in the second half, including nine in less than a minute during the third quarter.

She hit a free throw with 4:01 left in the third and followed it with a layup off a spin move. She then made back-to-back three-point plays that helped extend a 27-25 halftime lead to 44-29.

"I think Amanda really did give us a big lift," Hamacher said. "I'll tell you what, she's amazing.

"I think in years past if she had a bad first half with some foul trouble I don't know how she would have reacted in the second half. But now she's mature enough to come out with a level head and take over the game in the second half."

While Corral was heating up after halftime, the Brickies (1-0) iced the Cardinals (0-1) limiting them to five points in the third quarter, four of them by sisters Andrianna, 6-foot-1, and Teeuntra Moore, 6-2. The two combined for 20 points, giving Hobart matchup problems for most of the game.

"He's got two huge post players that they're big and they're skilled," Hamacher said. "Big time matchup problem for us. Both of them are.

"You have to (defend them) by team defense. Nobody can guard them one-on-one."

Both teams had to overcome an overabundance of fouls, with 55 total being whistled on both teams.

"The way I look at it is two teams that I would say have a little rivalry going and we want to play hard," E.C. Chicago coach Eric Kundich. "Hobart is a very intense team. They bring it for all 32 minutes and I just felt today in the third quarter for about four or five minutes we didn't match their intensity."

The first half, well, looked like the first half of the season.

Hobart struggled from the field, making just three shots outside the lane in the first eight minutes. The Brickies managed a three-point lead after the first quarter and it grew by just a point with 6 minutes left in the half. Then, after not being able to capitalize on Hobart's first quarter inaccuracy, E.C. Central's scored five straight points to give the Cardinals a 21-20 lead.

Both teams traded the lead for the final three minutes until Hobart's Daley Law hit one of her two 3-pointers to give Hobart a basket lead at halftime.

"We've got a ways to go to get to where we want to be," Kundich said. "We competed with a strong team. I think we'll continue to improve. We'll be ready by sectional time, I'll say that."