Robinson heats up early in a cool performance from Lake Hamilton
PINE BLUFF — Lake Hamilton never looked intimidated by the Parkview name.
Ty Robinson certainly didn’t look intimidated by the Parkview name.
The Lake Hamilton junior started the game with a magical touch, getting seemingly everything to fall. Robinson ended the first quarter with 20 points and the game with 38 to go with nine rebounds.
“I had no doubt in my mind from the look in his eye the last two days in practice that he was going to go nuts today,” Lake Hamilton head coach Scotty Pennington said. “There are times that no matter how people guard him, he’s got a counter for it. He’s so intelligent and so skilled that he can handle it. He did what we expected him to do. Maybe to a greater extent even than we thought.”
Heading into the contest, Pennington emphasized that many teams go into games with Parkview intimidated by the Patriots’ history. The Lake Hamilton head coach knew that would not be a problem for his team, and it showed from the opening tip.
The Wolves defeated Parkview 79-61 in the first round of the Class 5A state tournament, never trailing after Robinson made a 3-pointer to tie the game at 3-3.
“We believe we’re better than they are,” Pennington said. “That’s no knock to them. That’s just the confidence we have in ourselves. This is the first step of what we’ve got to do to accomplish what we want. Which is not just beating Parkview, but winning the whole thing.”
The Wolves and Patriots traded blows to start the game. Parkview’s Dallas Thomas, standing 6 feet, 9 inches, made his presence felt with a 3-pointer in the face of a Lake Hamilton defender to bring the Patriots within one at 11-10.
Early in the second quarter, Thomas dunked and received a technical foul on his way down. During the same sequence of play, Parkview head coach Scotty Thurman also received a technical.
Robinson made three of the four free throws to give Lake Hamilton a 30-24 lead with 5:17 to go before halftime.
Parkview ended the game with 27 fouls to Lake Hamilton’s 16.
“I think we’re one of the toughest teams, in the state it appears, to officiate,” Thurman said. “So we have guys driving to the basket who’s got two hands on him. Then on the other end it’s a swipe or tic tac and it’s blown. It’s kind of hard to establish rhythm about what you can and can’t do. I think our guys struggled with that today.”
Parkview struggled to build rhythm on offense in the second half, and the Wolves began the third quarter with back-to-back defensive stops.
Zac Pennington capped the good start to the half with a 3-pointer from well beyond the arc to give the Wolves a 47-33 lead.
Lake Hamilton entered the bonus early in both halves and finished the contest 28of-35 from the free-throw line. Parkview only went to the line 17 times, making 11 of those shots.
“It affects us a lot because I don’t really believe all of them were fouls,” Thurman said. “I think there were a lot of quick whistles on their end. Then on our end they’re not as quick. Then I thought they got away with a bunch of five-second calls when we were guarding them without seeing a physical
count. Then I thought the ball went out of bounds a few times and they saved it but the ball was on the line. It’s hard to establish a rhythm when the officiating is so, how can I put it, lopsided.”
Although Robinson was hot from the field, the junior got into foul trouble with four fouls midway through the third quarter. Lake Hamilton’s Charter Harris picked up his fourth foul not too long after Robinson, and the Wolves had to rely on players like Zane Pennington and Cooper Kindt to provide much-needed depth.
“It was huge tonight,” Scotty Pennington said. “Not going to lie, I was scared to death. The awesome thing was when they came back in the game, we were up by one more point than when we were when they came out. I think it shows that we have a little more depth than people think. Just coach P’s hard headed and doesn’t use it all the time. But it is there if we need it.”
Parkview built some momentum late in the third quarter and clawed back to a deficit of six points. However, just when Lake Hamilton needed it, Easton Hurley set a perfect screen for Zac Pennington, and the Southern Arkansas signee made no mistake in draining the 3-pointer.
Zac Pennington finished with 21 points and two rebounds. Thomas finished with 22 points and five rebounds for the Patriots.
Lake Hamilton meets up with Marion, the No. 1 seed from the East, today in the quarterfinals.
Marion eliminated the Wolves in the semifinals last year.
Marion defeated Greenbrier 45-43 to advance to play Lake Hamilton. Tipoff from Pine Bluff is set for 5:30 p.m.
“(Marion’s) very physical,” Scotty Pennington said. “They’re very good defensively. Maybe one of the best defensive teams we’ve seen all year. Offensively, they seem to be a little more offensively challenged than Parkview is. … (Marion) had a buzzer beater to win. We like our chances. We feel good about our team, but it’s going to be tough. They’re going to guard us. They’re going to get after us. I’m sure Ty and Zac will have big stars by their name in the scouting report, and they’re going to do everything they can to stop them.”