Kersey, Wolves outshine Star City
PEARCY — Star City could not come up with a response for the Lake Hamilton’s 3-point shooting Friday night as the Wolves hit 40 percent from distance en route to a 76-50 romp of the Bulldogs at Wolf Arena.
Lane Kersey led the Wolves
(6-2) with 29 points, 21 of which came from shots beyond the arc as he shot 7-for-12, 54 percent, from distance.
Trailing, 63-36, after three quarters, the Bulldogs (4-2) attempted to stage a comeback, pulling within 65-39 in the first
1:15 of the final period. A trey by Kersey and a free throw by Clyde Hill pushed the Wolves out to a 69-39 lead to set the clock in motion under the mercy rule, but the Bulldogs hit a 8-2 run following a pair of free throws by Kersey to pull within 73-47 with under two minutes to go.
“I’m proud of our guys for not quitting,” said Star City head coach Johnny Taylor. “I’m proud of their effort. We’re going to be alright in league play. We’ve got a long way to go, but I’m proud of the way they kept fighting. We’ve got good kids.”
A trey by Tyler Jones pushed the Wolves out to a 76-47 lead, but Star City’s Marvion Scott hit a bucket for the final points of the game after recovering his own rebound.
“This is the most athletic team that we’ve had, and the deepest team that we’ve had, so we feel more comfortable pressing because we’re not worried with foul trouble as much,” said Lake Hamilton head coach Scotty Pennington. “We do feel like we can stay in front of people more than we have in the past and match up athletically. That’s something that we’re going to look to do.
“This summer, we did a lot to work on it because we’ve never hung our hat on that, and we still won’t hang our hat completely on that. But it’s nice to know that if we fall behind and we need to jump in a press and pressure people to turn it over, we can do that.
Kersey pushed the Wolves out to an early lead, putting up 11 points as Lake Hamilton cruised to a 17-4 lead in the first 4:24 of the game. Another trey at the 2:38 mark gave the Wolves a 20-4 lead before Dee Williams was fouled while making a bucket, converting for a third point to make it 20-7 with 2:23 to go.
Lake Hamilton missed its next four shots, but Kersey was fouled with 1:35 remaining, making both shots before stealing a pass and making another bucket to put the Wolves ahead, 24-7, just 11 seconds later. Scott made another shot while being fouled, missing the free throw for the Bulldogs’ final points of the period with Malique Hill putting up a trey with three seconds remaining for a 27-9 lead.
“We turned it over and had 10 live-ball turnovers,” Taylor said. “They had 21 points off threes in the first half, and they had 21 points off live-ball turnovers. The threes didn’t beat us. It was us, self-inflicted, turning the ball over to where we’re not able to set our defense. One kid beat us shooting threes.”
The Bulldogs found their rhythm in the second period, putting up 19 points while allowing 20 for the Wolves with Kersey and Hill on the bench in foul trouble for a 47-28 Lake Hamilton lead at the break.
The Wolves opened the second half on a 10-4 run to take a 59-32 lead with 4:13 off the clock before the Bulldogs hit for four points by the 1:48 mark. Lake Hamilton closed out the period with a bucket by Hill for the 63-36 lead going into the fourth.
In addition to his 29 points, Kersey finished with five steals and a rebound. Malique Hill finished with 11 points with two rebounds, two assists and a steal with three treys.
“When he and Malique make perimeter shots, we’re a very tough basketball team to beat because of our physicality inside and the amount of guys we’ve have in there that can score and Mondo (Watkins) being able to break you down off the dribble,” said Pennington.
“This team, when Lane and Malik are clicking together on the same night, I really truly believe that we can beat anybody in the state. That’s our hope that as the year goes on we can get them clicking together when it matters the most.”
Pennington said Watkins is the one who “makes it go.” He finished with five assists, six steals and two rebounds.
Scott led the Bulldogs with 23 points on the night with two rebounds and an assist. Williams finished with 12 points with three rebounds, two steals and an assist, and Jahmar Knight finished with 11 points with five rebounds, two steals and an assist.
Lake Hamilton will be off until after Christmas when they host Centerpoint (4-2) on Dec. 27 in the Kameron Hale Invitational tournament at Wolf Arena.