Hamelin, Bulldogs run past Lions in Division II contest

LINCOLN — It all looked so easy for the Lincoln boys basketball in the first 35 seconds of Tuesday night’s Division II game with talented Westerly.

Leading scorer Tommy Beauchemin scored on a perfectly executed side pick and a roll and then Zach Carvalho scored for the hosts.

And then Westerly senior point guard Jacee Hamelin took over and the Lions never had a chance. The senior scored the game’s next four points and by the time the halftime buzzer went off, the Bulldog had outscored the entire Lincoln roster. Hamelin finished up with a game-high 23 points to lead Westerly to an emphatic 67-33 victory.

“I was expecting a game, hard-nosed game like we gave Portsmouth when we lost to them by one last week,” Lincoln coach Kent Crooks said. “I know that Jacee Hamelin is probably a first-team All-Stater and one of the elite players in Rhode Island. We’ve always done a good job on him in the past with a combination defense.

“Maybe it was my fault because I stuck with what has been our bread and butter this year, which is man-to-man defense. We just had many kids today that didn’t play hard-noised, man-to-man defense and we fell in love with the jump shot in the first half.”

Lincoln (7-7, 3-5 Division II) received a team-high 13 points from Beauchemin and six points from junior Jermaine Perez, who was tasked with slowing down Hamelin. The good news for Crooks is that talented guard Nick Jucket should return to the lineup later in the week.

Of course, life doesn’t get any easier for the Lions because they have to make their longest trip of the season Friday when they take on a talented Rogers team in Newport looking to snap a three-game losing streak.

“Losing like this really tests your mettle and it tests whether you can rebound,” Crooks said. “This team has already proved that it can do that when we were blown out at Narragansett and came back with a great effort at Portsmouth. We stunk the place out tonight and we have to go to Rogers on Friday and hopefully we show resilience.”

Westerly (11-1, 7-1 Division II) is battling for a top-8 seed in the upcoming Open state tournament and the Bulldogs haven’t lost in 2016. Along with Hamelin, senior Marc Perry (15 points), senior Christian Dean (six points) and guard Tabor Gates (two 3-pointers) all played well.

As happy as coach Michael Gleason was with the effort as a whole, he was displeased with the opening 35 seconds when he called a timeout after Carvalho’s basket to allow the Lions to open up a 4-0 run.

“In that timeout I told the kids that every time we come up here it’s a really close game and we have to play our game,” Gleason said. “We knew that No. 24 (Beauchemin) was a real hand full and we practiced against what they run and they still scored. After the timeout we settled down and started to play a little better.”

Hamelin scored a basket right out of the timeout and the Bulldogs pressed immediately and Hamelin scored another basket moments later. Perry put the Bulldogs ahead for good, as the visitors went on a 21-4 run.

Hamelin finished the half with 17 points, while the Lions only had 15, led by Beauchemin’s seven points.

“Definitely, that was some of our best basketball and we never seem to have good look in this gym,” Gleason said. “We wanted to push the tempo and that’s why I pressed more than I usually do. Hamelin had a lot of luck attacking the rim. Sometimes he’s too unselfish, but I thought he played a really good game.”

What fueled Westerly’s 25-point advantage at the break, according to Crooks, was Lincoln’s lack of discipline on the offensive end. The Lions were 1-for-13 from 3-point range and that led to transition opportunities for Westerly. The Bulldogs had 25 transition points in the first half.

“We fell in love with the jump shot in the first half,” Crooks said. “That team loves to fly, so when you take a long shot and it’s a bad shot or one early in the shot clock, that’s almost like a turnover. It’s going to be a long rebound and you’re fueling their fast break.”

Hamelin deferred to a few of his talented teammates in the second half to extend the lead. Perry scored a team-high nine points over the final 16 minutes, while Gates had six and Holsten Jimno had four

Beauchemin scored six in the second half for the visitors and Myels Nuey knocked down a 3-pointer and added five.