Justin Dozier of East Hamilton brings the ball up the court during their Hall of Fame game with Silverdale Baptist Academy Thursday night. Dozier scored 13 points in leading the Hurricanes to a 59-43 win over the Seahawks.
photo by Dennis Norwood
Most coaches in any sport will tell you that you don't get better playing competition less talented than your own team.
That is certainly the philosophy behind Silverdale and their choice to play bigger schools like Hixson and East Hamilton in Hall of Fame basketball games to open their season.
But for a small Class A school like the Seahawks to be facing one of the biggest public schools in Hamilton County, it was all about getting better and learning how to deal with tougher competition.
The Hurricanes were never seriously challenged as they rolled to a 59-43 victory in their first game of the year.
"I've been better," said Silverdale coach Slater Belew after the game ended.
"We're still trying to build our defense, but it's tough to win when you have 27 turnovers. We play bigger schools like East Hamilton to make us better on down the road, but we have to learn how to adapt to the pressure they put on us.
"We have a young team with only three seniors, but the thing I like best is the fact they never quit. We fought until the end, but we have to learn how to fight through adversity. But they're buying into what we're trying to teach. They're hustling and they're working hard. Now we just have to fine tune it," the first-year Seahawk coach added.
Brannon Walls scored on a short bank shot and Michael Hawkins added a free throw as Silverdale built a 3-0 lead in the first 90 seconds.
Two more free throws by Walls a minute later gave Silverdale a 5-2 with 5:42 left in the first quarter, but by the time Tyler Mossburg sank two charity tosses at the 2:41 mark, the Hurricanes had turned things around with a 14-0 run and the Seahawks never led again.
A 3 from the wing by Justin Dozier at the 5:07 mark gave East Hamilton the lead for the first time. Braydon Griffith's two free throws in the final minute gave the visitors a 20-9 lead when the first quarter ended.
The second quarter was more like a free-throw contest as six of Silverdale's eight points came from the charity stripe. Vandrele Wilson sank the second of two free throws with 1.9 seconds as the Hurricanes had a 27-17 lead at intermission.
Mossburg sank a jumper from the wing with 2:59 left in the third as the Hurricane lead was trimmed to 37-24, but East Hamilton finished the quarter on a 9-0 run for its biggest lead of the game at 46-24 when the quarter ended.
Walls scored on a layup with 1:42 remaining as Silverdale got to within 14 at 55-41, but it never got any closer as the Hurricanes chose to run out the clock on their final possession in the last minute.
East Hamilton coach Rodney English may have been expecting too much, but he saw several areas where his team still has plenty of room to improve.
"I know that this is our first game, but I thought we'd execute on offense better than we did. And I thought we were too stagnant on defense, but I also saw a lot of positives," he said after a brief post-game chat with his team.
"We're young, but we're also deep so our talent level doesn't fall off much when we go to our bench. I thought we committed too many fouls, but I have a bunch of guys in that dressing room huffing and puffing, so effort was never a question.
"The good news is that we got some valuable game experience and a lot of guys played," English concluded with a smile.
Dozier scored 13 points to lead a trio of Hurricanes in double figures.
Wilson followed with a dozen while Jacob Clark was next with 11.
Walls and Mossburg both had 14 points for the Seahawks while Hawkins was next with nine.
The Hurricanes also won the rebounding battle by an unofficial 33-20 margin.
Braydon Griffith and Clark both had six for East Hamilton while Dozier grabbed five. Walls had eight rebounds for the Seahawks while Hawkins finished with four.
EAST HAMILTON GIRLS 52, SILVERDALE 37: The Lady Seahawks had a slow start, but a 14-4 advantage in the second quarter allowed them to take a 22-20 lead at the half.
The Lady Hurricanes made a few adjustments at the break and were never threatened in the second half as that two-point deficit turned into a 38-28 lead when the third quarter ended and it never got any closer.
Kyndall Caudle had 16 points for the winners while Destyne Black and Madison Hayes were also in double figures with 15 and 10 points, respectively.
Emily Harkleroad matched her jersey number with 11 points to lead Silverdale while Rachel Sanders had 10 and Maddie Caldwell nine.
GIRLS SUMMARY
EAST HAMILTON 16 4 18 14 -- 52
SILVERDALE 8 14 6 9 -- 37
East Hamilton (52) -- Weaver, Moon 2, Caudle 16, Scott 2, Hayes 10, Gray 1, Zeh 6, Black 15.
Silverdale (37) -- Barton, Caldwell 9, Harkleroad 11, Lewis 3, Sanders 10, Skelton 2, White 2.
3-Point Goals: East Hamilton 1 (Zeh); Silverdale 1 (Lewis).
BOYS SUMMARY
EAST HAMILTON 20 7 19 13 -- 59
SILVERDALE 9 8 7 19 -- 43
East Hamilton (59) -- Wilson 12, Panadero 2, Williams 8, Ball 3, Fager 5, Dozier 13, Roshell, Griffith 5, Wingard, Rogers, Clark 11.
Silverdale (43) -- Marshall, Bannor, Locklear, Hawkins 9, Mossburg 14, Rogers 2, Walls 14, Crockett, Hannah 2, King 2.
3-Point Goals: East Hamilton 5 (Wilson, Williams, Ball, Fager, Dozier); Silverdale 1 (Hawkins).
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)
Silverdale's Brannon Wells (10) takes the ball to the hoop against a tight East Hamilton defense.
photo by Dennis Norwood