Lake Hamilton staves off late Troy push for 64-59 road win
Despite Lake Hamilton securing a 15-point lead at halftime, Hot Springs battled back in the second half to sneak up on the Wolves in the last minute, but the Trojans could not find a way to overcome the Wolves in a 64-59 defeat at Trojan Arena.
“We did a lot of things wrong to allow them to get back into the game, but nonetheless we leave with a filthy taste in our mouth about that, but it’s still a road win against Hot Springs and that’s hard to do,” said Lake Hamilton head coach Scotty Pennington. “Zac (Pennington) played really well in the first half, and Chase Jessup came along offensively. He did a good job offensively for us inside, and that’s something we’ve been waiting on for a couple of years now. … He’s hard to guard when he’s aggressive. In the second half, he got in foul trouble, and it hurt us a little bit. They started running and jumping there and trying to speed us up.”
Despite the loss, Hot Springs head coach Antoni Lasker said the Trojans pride themselves on never giving up.
“I coach ‘til the last second, ‘til the clock hits triple zeros, and I expect my guys to play until the clock hits triple zeros, no matter what the score says,” he said. “We don’t play for the score. We’re going to play our brand of basketball no matter what the score says and let the chips fall where they may.”
With the score at 47-37 heading into the final period, the teams traded buckets to kick off play as K.J. McDaniel nailed a 3-pointer. Sophomore Dante Grayer put up the Trojans’ next 8 points with buckets and a pair of free throws as junior Cade Robinson added a bucket of his own with another trey from Mc
Daniel for Lake Hamilton to maintain the 10-point spread.
The spread hovered near 10 until Grayer sent in one from inside the paint with 1:04 left in the game, connecting with classmate Nasir Hannah moments later to pull within 61-56.
With 44.9 seconds to go, Pennington was sent to the line, making one of two as the Trojans struggled to connect on shots from rebounds. Hannah drained a trey with 14 seconds on the clock before a set of free throws from Pennington set the final.
Pennington accounted Hot Springs’ comeback to the Wolves’ energy tapering off heading into the final part of the game.
“We missed so many layups against their pressure,” he said. “If you convert, you push it out to 25-, 26-, 28-point lead, but instead, we’re missing layups, and they start making some 3s, and it starts getting interesting there at the end. We’ve got to make our layups against the press. We’ve got to take care of the ball against the pressure and finish people out better. We also didn’t defend. Once we got tired towards the end of the game and got into a little foul trouble, we didn’t defend well.”
The start of the game saw evenly-matched action from both sides for 6-6 before Lake Hamilton gained some ground behind a bucket from junior Hayden McDougal and Pennington knocking back a trey. Sophomore Jayveon Felton answered for the Trojans with a field goal inside off a Grayer assist, but the Wolves kept on with their energy with a 9-3 spurt for a 20-11 lead.
Sophomore Aamir Andrews grabbed a steal and lifted a layup with five minutes to go until intermission as the Wolves offense controlled the floor with several playmakers contributing to scoring for a 36-21 advantage at the break.
Hot Springs sophomore Bino Stephens opened up the second half with a trey, but the Trojans came up empty for the next few possessions with Lake Hamilton hitting a 7-0 stretch. The hosts gathered some momentum with Felton and Stephens each tacking on a set of free throws to kickstart a 12-2 spurt that pulled the Trojans within 45-36 as Jessup ended the spell with a bucket and a shot from the line from senior Adrian Conway moved the Trojans deficit to 10.
“I thought that in the second half, we had a lot better energy,” Lasker said. “We rebounded better. They didn’t get as many second chances or opportunities. When we started to pick them up and pressure them, we were able to turn them over some. Above all, our kids didn’t quit. There was no quitting in our kids tonight. I told them in the locker room that was one thing I’m extremely proud of ‘cause they could have laid down and they didn’t. They fought back. Unfortunately, we just came up short.”
McDaniel led the Wolves with 17 points, two rebounds and two steals. Jessup came away with with 15 points and six boards and Pennington added 14 points, four steals, two boards and two assists.
Hannah led Hot Springs with 14 points, a steal and an assist. Grayer finished with 12 points, four rebounds, three assists and a steal, Stephens added 12 points, three assists and a steal and Felton had 12 points, five boards and a steal.
The Trojans travel to White Hall on Friday. The Wolves host El Dorado.