Sergio Panadero, an unknown basketball commodity around these parts, drilled five 3-pointers on Tuesday night – two to open the fourth quarter – and East Hamilton cashed in with a 51-47 District 5-3A high school basketball victory over rival Ooltewah.
Panadero, a diminutive shooting guard and exchange student from Madrid Spain, drained a pair of 3s in the final period and extended the Hurricanes’ lead to 42-34. East Hamilton led 36-34, after three quarters.
“I haven’t had a good night shooting the whole year,” said Panadero, who scored a team-high 15 points on the five bombs – four came in the second half and three in the final quarter – from behind the 3-point arc.
“I felt this was going to be my night. I have played with the junior varsity and the varsity all year, but tonight I didn’t play with the junior varsity and I felt fresh.”
Ooltewah had no clue Panadero could be such a weapon.
“It really surprised us,” said Kevin McCauley, who led the Owls with a game-high 18 points, 12 coming in the second half. “We didn’t know who he was. But when we left him open he knocked down some big shots.”
The Owls got an inkling of Panadero’s long-range abilities when he little guy ripped a banked 3-pointer at the buzzer ending the first quarter. That shot tied the game at 12-all and Panadero was the sixth different Hurricanes player to score in the first eight minutes.
Panadero’s shot from the right wing was an omen for what was to come.
“He’s amazing,” said East Hamilton’s guard Justin Dozier, who pumped in 14 points, 12 in the second half. “He’s had to learn a lot, but I’m glad he’s here.”
Dozier made two driving layups to give East Hamilton a 46-36 advantage midway through the final period. Panadero offset an old-fashioned three-point play by Ooltewah’s Joseph Norwood with another 3 from the right wing and the Hurricanes (10-3, 2-1) were up 49-39 with 3:35 left in the hard-fought, but sloppy at times contest before a good crowd at East Hamilton.
“Sergio does that for us,” East Hamilton coach Rodney English said. “We noticed in our last two games that he got tired before halftime, so I wanted to hold him out of the junior varsity game tonight to have him fresh. He probably won’t play with the JV team the rest of the season.”
Ooltewah coach Tank Montgomery didn’t know much, if anything, about Panadero’s shooting skills, but wasn’t surprised by what the junior was able to do.
“We’re not supposed to take anybody lightly,” Montgomery said. “Anybody that gets that wide open I believe they can shoot it. I told the guys that. It was our lack of communication for about three minutes on defense that cost us the game.”
The Owls (2-7, 1-2) have had trouble closing out games. They lost to CSAS 68-66 to open the season, dropped a 78-75 decision to Red Bank, lost to White County 79-72 after being blasted by the same team in Sparta two weeks earlier, fell to Cumberland County, 68-64, and came up short 48-47 against district foe Walker Valley last Friday.
“We hung our head in that three-minute stretch I was talking about,” he said, “and I think we pouted for a little bit and that really hurt us. We have to play through it. We’re going to get there. I believe in my guys and they believe in what we’re doing.”
Down 10, the Owls certainly didn’t roll over at the end.
They clawed back with eight straight points, the last two buckets by McCauley and trailed 49-47 with 1:19 on the clock.
Dozier missed a free throw and the Owls quickly got the ball down court with a fastbreak. Joseph Norwood saw an opening in the lane and drove to the basket, but missed a left-handed layup with 9.6 seconds remaining. Norwood scored 11 points.
Kobe Jones fouled Dozier, who made both free throws at the 9.1-second mark and give the Hurricanes the final four-point spread.
Following last Friday’s tough 70-64 loss at Bradley Central, English emphatically said his team would never play that poorly the rest of the season. Against the Owls, the improved play was clearly visible.
“I let my distaste for the way they approached the Bradley game linger right up to the tip for today’s game,” English said. “We didn’t practice Saturday, but I was horrible to them Sunday and Monday. We worked and worked and worked.
“I didn’t know who was going to step up tonight, but I knew someone would.”
Panadero obliged.
“I think this was our principal rivalry, so it brings happiness for all the school,” he said. “It’s pretty good win and we will have to enjoy it. At the end of the (school) year I will go back to Spain. I’m just here for the one year.”
Panadero will certainly have plenty to talk about when he gets home, especially the night he helped take down the Owls.
In the girls’ game, the Lady Hurricanes (6-6, 2-1) cruised to a 46-31 victory behind a balanced scoring attack led by Carli Zeh’s 13 points. Zeh scored eight points in the first quarter, including two of the team’s three 3-pointers.
Madison Hayes added 11 points, nine in the first half, and Destyne Black tossed in 10 with eight coming in the second and third quarters.
Hannah Henderson, a key cog for Ooltewah’s volleyball team that reached the state tournament in October, paced the Owls (2-7, 1-2) with 12 points. She got half her offensive production in the fourth period.
LINESCORES
Boys
Ooltewah 12 10 12 13 – 47
East Hamilton 12 8 16 15 – 51
Ooltewah (47) – Rawls 7, Taylor 4, Kevin McCauley 18, Montgomery, Joseph Norwood 11, Jones 7, Kendricks, Nayadley 2.
East Hamilton (51) – Wilson 7, Sergio Panadero 15, Williams, Ball, Noah Fager 11, Justin Dozier 14, Roshell 2, Wingard 2, Rogers, Clark.
3-Point Goals – Ooltewah 1 (Rawls 1), East Hamilton 7 (Panadero 5, Wilson 1, Fager 1).
Girls
Ooltewah 9 6 3 13 – 31
East Hamilton 16 9 7 14 – 46
Ooltewah (31) – Cline, Thomas 1, Reed 6, Swafford 2, Mills 6, Baker, Collake, Lemon 1, Hannah Henderson 12, Jones 3, Patterson.
East Hamilton (46) – Weaver, Moon 3, Caudle 9, Scott, Madison Hayes 11, Gray, Carli Zeh 13, Destyne Black 10, Abernathy
3-Point Goals – Ooltewah 1 (Reed 1), East Hamilton 3 (Zeh 2, Caudle 1).
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)