Coming into the Times Free Press Best of Preps basketball tournament as first-time participants and with a lot of fanfare, Hamilton Heights’ boys had to figure they were going to get opponents’ best shots. They got Central’s, or close to it Saturday, but it wasn’t enough.
The Hawks withstood everything the pesky Purple Pounders threw at them and ultimately squeezed out a 61-54 victory at Chattanooga State.
Hamilton Heights (13-1) moves on to the championship game Monday night at 8:30. Central (8-3) will play for third place at 5:30.
The Hawks led most of the first half, but never by more than four points. The Pounders were up 26-25 late in the half with a chance to add to it, but Terron Hayes missed the front end of a bonus situation with 10.3 seconds to go.
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Toadsuck Daze 2007
Thousands of festival-goers filled the streets of downtown Conway May 4-6 to enjoy food, fun and entertainment during the city's 2007 Toad Suck Daze festival.
Hamilton Heights rebounded and went the other way, where Ezekiel Balagon made an off-balance shot in the lane before the buzzer.
“We knew coming in what we had to do to stay in the game,” Central coach Rick Rogers said. “We had to get good, open looks and be patient. They did a good job of that, and with trying to dictate tempo. We should’ve had the lead at the end of the first half.”
The Hawks started the third quarter with a 9-1 run, and Central was in catch-up mode the rest of the way.
“We knew they were going to come out and play hard,” Hamilton Heights coach Zach Ferrell said. “We knew they could shoot the ball. We did a great job at the beginning of the second half pushing it out and giving ourselves a cushion.”
The run started with a basket inside by Balogun and included a dunk off a low-post move by 6-foot-10 Abdulhakim Ado, a layup by Milos Andelic on a runout and the Hawks making three of four free throws. Hamilton Heights’ largest lead was 40-30 late in the third quarter.
“He got smart at halftime,” Rogers said of his counterpart. “They’ve got 7-footers and we’ve got 5-footers. They started going inside, and we couldn’t stop that.”
Central mounted one more surge and, with the aid of two 3-pointers within 14 seconds by Rodney Benford, got within 46-45 when Ryan Montgomery scored underneath off a feed from Tre Tiller on the left wing with 4:43 remaining. But Joan Duran responded with a 3-pointer 27 seconds later, followed by another Andelic layup on a runout and a dunk on a fastbreak by Balogun.
“We’ve played a few close games,” Ferrell said. “We had some guys step up and make some big plays. Joan hit a big 3. We just took care of the ball. We got some stops that led to some easy baskets, and that really helped us down the stretch.”
Balogun and Duran each scored 14 points for Hamilton Heights, with nine of Duran’s coming in the fourth quarter. Andelic added 13 and Ado totaled eight points, 12 rebounds, 11 blocks and four assists.
Benford led the Pounders with 14 points, and Montgomery scored 12. Jamichael Poole scored 10 of his 11 in the first half.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.