The Central Purple Pounders were on the road for their second basketball game of the season Tuesday night and they stayed unbeaten with the 82-65 victory over the East Hamilton Hurricanes, but it wasn’t nearly as close as the final score might indicate.
The Pounders, who have one of their best teams in recent years, have the ability to score a lot of points in a hurry and that was certainly the case on Tuesday. But after building an impressive 47-26 lead at the half, play got a little sloppy on both ends in the second half.
Central’s biggest lead of 32 points came with 2:32 left in the third quarter following a 3 by Rodney Benford that made the score 67-35.
East Hamilton could have tossed in the white towel to surrender at that point, but instead chose to play their hearts out for the remainder of the game.
The Hurricanes saved face with a lot of hustle in that fourth quarter, cutting a 28-point lead to 17 when the final horn sounded.
“Historically, we’ve been a slow starting team, but we’re trying to change that this year,” said Central coach Rick Rogers after his team improved to 2-0.
“We want to play hard and fast the entire time, but we’re going to have to get in better shape to do that. We still have a lot of things to work on, including how to play with a lead, but we just gave East Hamilton a lot of confidence with the way they played in the fourth quarter.
“We’re really not in game shape yet, but this game shouldn’t have been that close. We just let them off the hook as we just quit hustling at the end and they were playing to win. I’m pleased for the most part, but I’m trying to not be too upset over not finishing the job we started,” he added.
Central never trailed in this game. Justin Dozier’s bucket at the 5:53 mark cut Central’s lead to 5-4, but the Pounders went on a 10-0 run in the next three minutes to make it 15-4. A layup in the final seconds by Ryan Montgomery allowed Central to double the score at 28-14 when the first quarter ended.
The second quarter was much of the same as the Hurricanes didn’t seem to have an answer for Central’s fast-paced offense.
The lead continued to grow for the Pounders in the second half and it appeared that the Mercy Rule might be used in the fourth stanza, but Central could never extend that lead to 35 points.
East Hamilton coach Rodney English was certainly impressed.
“They’re really good and they jumped on us early as there wasn’t much we could do at the beginning,” the first-year leader suggested.
“We had a tough time closing the gap in the first half, but we never quit playing and I liked the effort we showed in the second half. Central has a very good basketball team, but I don’t think they’re that much better than we are. We’re looking forward to playing at their place here in a few weeks,” he added, knowing that the rematch will take place on Saturday, Dec.
13.
Central had three players in double figures, including Montgomery with 23. Tre Tiller was next with 15 while Benford was next with 13.
DeShaun Beach scored 19 points to lead East Hamilton. Tank Sparks and Tracy Thompson were also in double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Central had an 18-17 rebounding edge in the first half, but East Hamilton dominated the boards in the final two quarters to finish with a 40-25 advantage.
Thompson had nine for the Hurricanes while Beach finished with eight. Jamichael Poole and Montgomery both had six for Central.
Central’s next game will be Friday at Red Bank while East Hamilton is now 5-2 and will host Brainerd on Saturday.
CENTRAL GIRLS 44, EAST HAMILTON 29: Sandrea Sylman scored 13 of her game-high 21 points in the second quarter as the Lady Purple Pounders turned a 9-6 lead into a 24-14 difference at the half and it never got much closer.
Sylman was tops for the Lady Pounders while D’aria Kelly was next with eight points. Kindall Caudle was tops for East Hamilton with nine points.
GIRLS SUMMARY
CENTRAL 9 15 14 6 -- 44
EAST HAMILTON 6 8 7 8 -- 29
CENTRAL (44) – Hixson 2, Davis 4, Miller 1, Sylman 21, Smith, Denton 5, Kelly 8, Feist, Johnson, Hill 3.
EAST HAMILTON (29) – Moon 1, Caudle 9, Woods 2, Scott, Wood 3, Gray 5, Black 1, C. Zeh 6, M. Zeh 2, Maston.
3-POINT GOALS: Central 2 (Denton, Hill); East Hamilton 2 (Caudle, C. Zeh).
BOYS SUMMARY
CENTRAL 28 19 22 13 -- 82
EAST HAMILTON 14 12 15 24 -- 65
CENTRAL (82) – McKenzie 3, Tiller 15, Billingsley, Hayes 6, Montgomery 23, Benford 13, Poole 9, Johnson 4, Swafford 4, Lane 5.
EAST HAMILTON (65) – Wright, Thompson 10, Chacko, Sparks 11, Dozier 2, Rawls 3, Griffith 4, Wingard, Beach 19, Hughley 6, Fager 7, Rogers 2.
3-POINT GOALS: Central 9 (Tiller, Montgomery 3, Benford 3, Poole, Lane); East Hamilton 3 (Sparks, Rawls, Griffith).
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@comcast.net)