East Hamilton practiced an end-of-game situation Monday.
The situation played out in the game Tuesday.
The Hurricanes beat Ooltewah 51-47 after owning a 10-point lead with four minutes left in the District 5-AAA game – the exact scenario they practiced three times the day before.
“Two of those times we were decent,” East Hamilton coach Rodney English said. “Tonight we were a D-minus.”
Sergio Panadero led the Hurricanes (10-3, 2-1) with 15 points, all on 3-pointers. Justin Dozier added 14 points, including two free throws with 9.1 seconds left to seal the victory. Kevin McCauley led the Owls (2-7, 1-3) with 18 points, and Joseph Norwood added 11.
Panadero stole the show. English had been playing the exchange student from Spain in junior varsity games in the afternoon and then the varsity games in the evenings to increase his experience and exposure to American basketball.
But Tuesday, he didn’t play in the afternoon. The result was a career-high five 3s including back-to-back 3s in the third quarter resulting in the student section chanting his name.
“In Spain there’s not that many people who come to the games,” he said. “It was so exciting. But I tried to keep concentrated.”
Playing two games in the same day left Panadero a little fatigued toward the end of varsity games. Against the Owls, four of his 3s came in the second half.
“He may never play JV again after today,” English said. “I told him that he’s making me look like a genius.”
The genius didn’t show until the second half. The Owls controlled – but did not dominate – the first half and took a 22-20 lead into halftime.
Panadero gave the Hurricanes their first lead since the opening minutes with a 3 on their second possession of the second half. Ooltewah maintained a close distance to the Hurricanes into the fourth quarter, when they trailed 36-34.
Then Panadero got hot, hitting two 3s and sending the student section into a frenzy. Dozier added two baskets and the Hurricanes owned a 46-36 lead with 4 minutes, 44 seconds to play – just as they had practiced a day before.
“We checked out mentally, and that cost us,” Ooltewah coach Tank Montgomery said. “We had turnovers and too many mental errors.”
But the Owls weren’t done. They pulled within 49-47 with an 8-0 run capped by a McCauley post move with 75 ticks to tock.
But they couldn’t pull even, and Dozier hit two free throws after missing his previous four attempts.
“I thought our defense was good all night, but we played it too much because we were stagnant on offense,” English said. “Then in the second half we moved the ball better and we got a rhythm, and we prepared for this. I thought we closed that thing out.”
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.