Hopewell earns another impressive win
HOPEWELL TWP. » For those who have not started taking the Hopewell Valley Central High boys basketball team seriously yet, here’s some advice.
Get over it.
With leading scorer Alex Mummert limited to eight points, Hopewell showed its depth Thursday night by taking a 50-40 win over a tough Hamilton West team.
The early rap on the Bulldogs is that they beat up on losing teams, but they now own wins over West Windsor-Plainsboro North, Hightstown, West and Pennington, which are a combined 33-18. They lost by only two to 11-1 Nottingham.
“Our guys are fired up at all times,” coach Max Stein said. “I know after last season (of five wins), all these guys had a chip on their shoulders. So at all times we still have a chip on our shoulder. I know teams still think we’re not there yet. Each day we keep improving, each day we get ready for the next opponent and then we go from there.”
HoVal was facing a Hamilton team that had won seven straight before squandering a late lead at Pennington Wednesday, and the first half was a war that saw Hopewell emerge with a 25-24 lead after eight lead changes. The Hornets (8-5) did a nice job pressuring Mummert, who is averaging 17 points, but Rob Wiley picked up the slack with 10 of his 15 points in the half.
“They were kind of harassing (Mummert) out there,” guard Milos De Los Santos said.
“A lot of teams have been all over Alex to make sure he doesn’t get an easy shot,” Stein said. “They did a great job defensively. It seemed like they were doubling down on Wiley, too. He got a couple close shots in the beginning, later he didn’t have a lot of open shots down low.”
It would not matter, however, as there were no lead changes after intermission.
Hamilton came out in a 2-3 zone and De Los Santos and Drew Brodine busted that by immediately hitting 3-pointers. Brodine’s shot started the Bulldogs on a 10-0 run that gave the home team a 38-26 lead. De Los Santos had seven of his nine second-half points during the third quarter.
“Milo came up big for us,” Stein said. “He did the same thing against Lawrence. Last year he started, now being able to play with Alex (who was injured last season), learning under him and playing together and getting a rhythm together.”
It was a nightmare quarter offensively for West, which shot just 2-for-10 and scored four points.
“Recently we’ve been off on our spots and our backline defense but tonight we got back to the correct spots,” Stein said. “We definitely picked it up. We gave up 17 points in the first quarter and after that it got back to what we usually give up. It was totally our defense that got into them.”
Hamilton, which got 16 from Javon Porter and 12 points and nine rebounds from Dane Riley, pulled within 38-32 and 42-36 in the fourth quarter but could never get any closer as HoVal controlled the second half.
“We started out a little slow so coming out strong in the second half was important,” De Los Santos said. “We just came out with more energy. We were sluggish at first.”
Brodine added 10 points while Cole Hare had six points and six rebounds and Hopewell got another team effort.
“We’ve got 12 guys that can play,” De Los Santos said. “We don’t really have a weak point throughout the whole bench. We all can contribute.”
Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @fish4scores
Riley 6-0-12, Porter 7-2-16, Shasha 0-0-0, Charles 2-2-6, Davis 1-3-6, Beebe 0-0-0, Saydee 0-0-0, Then 0-0-0.
16-7-40.
Totals —
Mummert 3-2-8, Wiley 7-1-15, De Los Santos 3-2-9, Brodine 4-0-10, Hare 1-4-6, Johnson 0-0-0, Demareski 1-0-2, Broz 0-0-0.
19-9-50.
Totals — Hamilton (8-5) 15 Hopewell (12-2) 12 3-point goals — 9 13 4 13 12 — 12 — 40 50
Davis (HAM). Brodine 2, De Los Santos (HOPE).