Wolves stage huge comeback, down Vilonia in OT,
In what could only be described as a brilliant example of resilience and drive, Lake Hamilton showed it belonged in the Class 5A state basketball tournament as the Wolves recovered from a 45-19 deficit in the third period to edge out Vilonia 64-63 in overtime at Trojan Arena Wednesday.
“I’m just extremely proud,” said Lake Hamilton head coach Scotty Pennington. “The kids overcame me and my game plan and how I screwed it up to just say, ‘Okay, coach. Hop on our back, and we’ll take care of this one.’ I’m proud of them for that … (and) just a great attitude. That they could do something that we don’t even work on. I’m just being honest. We don’t even work on pressing in man-to-man. … It’s just incredible.
“It’s the single most best victory in my coaching career — 19 years. Just because of the way it went down and how bad we looked early and then just completely switch it in the second half and find a way. It’s just incredible.”
Leading 36-19 at the break, Vilonia kept the momentum going with a 9-0 spurt to extend to a 26-point advantage.
With 4:23 on the clock, the Wolves finally started their second half drive as sophomore K.J. McDaniel and freshman Ty Robinson each sank a bucket.
Senior Graham Middleton grabbed a rebound and found his way to the arc for a 3-pointer, and Lake Hamilton started to chip away at the deficit, matching pace with Vilonia while sophomore Zac Pennington, senior Elijah Smith and Ty Robinson each found success on the perimeter to pull within 52-37.
Ty Robinson hit a short jumper as Middleton matched it with a pair of free throws with 6:52 to go in regulation. Pennington reeled in back-to-back buckets and after both sides missed shots on possessions, Middleton added a free throw.
Lake Hamilton continued to step up the pressure as Vilonia struggled to execute. Smith connected with Ty Robinson at the top of the key for a 3-pointer with Ty Robinson adding two free throws on their next drive as Pennington drilled a trey of his own from the right wing, dishing to junior Cade Robinson at the left baseline to pull within 57-54.
With less than a minute until the end of the quarter, Pennington knotted the score with a 3-point field goal to tack on four extra minutes.
The Eagles struck gold first in overtime as junior Austin Myers found Middleton inside for a bucket, but the Wolves proved they weren’t going to lie down as they matched Vilonia to knot the score at 61. Lake Hamilton picked up its first lead of the night as junior Chase Jessup knocked in a bucket off the glass off a Ty Robinson assist.
A block by Ty Robinson kept Vilonia from tying up the game once again, but junior Coleton Barrow squeezed inside with less than 10 seconds on the clock. As Cade Robinson drove down the court, an Eagle plowed into him while reaching for the ball, sending him to the line with 0.3 seconds to go as his free throw brought it home for the Wolves.
“In the first half, I blame myself,” said Pennington. “Our game plan was to do what we’ve always done, just play zone. You know, (Vilonia) shot it so well in the first half, and they executed so well in the first half. At halftime, we had to completely scrap the game plan. We said, ‘Alright, we don’t ever do this.
We’ve dug a hole and the only way we can get back in this game is if we start pressing and we start trapping and try to make it chaos and hope that they turn it over.’ I was even reluctant to do it because I just know that that’s not something we even work on in practice. Something we’ve never done all year. It says a lot about our kids and how resilient they are and how bad they want to win because they said, ‘OK, let’s go.’
“You get one turnover and hit a big shot. Then all of sudden you’re creeping back a little and you hit another one and now it’s into the teens and it just kept building and building and building. I was really shocked by how we turned them over in the fourth quarter and some of the shots that we were able to step up and hit as young as we are.”
Vilonia head coach Jeremy Simon said the pressure from Lake Hamilton caused the Eagles to have trouble fighting back.
“We played about as good as we could for about two and a half quarters,” he said. “When they went small, and they took (Jessup) off and really pressured us hard, we struggled against it. My players kept wanting foul calls, but you’re just not gonna get foul calls in the state tournament. You’ve gotta learn to fight through it and be able to overcome everything that’s happening. And credit Lake Hamilton. They pressured us. They were all over us — caused us to turn the ball over, caused us to force out bad shots. Then on the offensive end, it seemed like they didn’t miss in the last quarter and a half. They kept hitting shots. Their ninth grader stepped up for them. He kept hitting one shot after the other. We were on them, (and) we were doubling them. It seemed like if we got on them tight, they would go around us and hit a little eight-footer.”
Vilonia started the game off fast on a 12-2 run before Lake Hamilton gained some ground to match their effort from inside the paint to pull within 6, but it was shortlived as the Wolves came up dry until Ty Robinson ended the drought with a 3-pointer to make it 20-11.
The Wolves kicked their energy up a notch with to pull within 6, but the Eagles rallied behind several players on an 11-0 run to broaden the spread onto a
17-point halftime lead. Ty Robinson led Lake Hamilton with 25 points, three rebounds, two assists and a steal. Pennington followed with 15 points, five boards, five assists and a steal and Smith tallied 8 points, a board and an assist. Jessup added 6 points and five boards while Cade Robinson had
6 points and McDaniel rounded out the scoring with 4 points.
Pennington, who normally sports No. 24, dressed in the No.
1 jersey for his girlfriend, junior Ginny Higginbotham, who plays on the Lake Hamilton girls basketball team. Higginbotham, who wears No. 1 for the Lady Wolves, suffered a season-ending injury in a recent game.
Myers paced Vilonia with a double-double show of 19 points,
12 rebounds, an assist and two steals. Middleton tallied 15 points and five boards, and Barrow finished with 12 points, two boards and an assist.
Lake Hamilton faces Little Rock Parkview Friday at 1 p.m.