Leading an East Hamilton basketball home sweep of Walker Valley on Tuesday, senior star Madison Hayes got it started with a triple-double and junior guard Darwin Randolph closed it out.
After making back-to-back putbacks, one being off his own miss from 3-point range, Randolph swiped the ball away and gave the Hurricanes a 15-point lead with over five minutes left to play. He scored 11 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter in the 60-51 District 5-AAA victory.
"Darwin is our spark plug," said first-year Hurricanes coach Andy Webb. "He already plays like a senior. Ian Shropshire and Darwin's energy and effort really inspires the whole crowd when we are at home."
Shropshire was key in an 11-0 run that began with Cade Pendleton making the first 3-pointer of the game in the first 11 attempts. After Marcus Long's block, Shropshire gave East Hamilton its first lead and seconds later hit a layup off one of Jordan Harris' four steals for a 16-12 lead.
Will Campbell assisted three straight buckets with Jake Smith's layup reclaiming an 18-16 lead for the Mustangs (13-7, 2-3 5-AAA).
Walker Valley point guard Braden Davis swished a 3-pointer on the run at the buzzer for a 25-23 halftime lead.
East Hamilton (9-9, 3-3) got hot from deep in the third quarter in which a ferocious one-handed dunk by Noah Duprey was called off due to a charge drawn by Harris.
Randolph scored the first of his 16 second-half points with a trey from the top of the key to break a tie, and Haynes Eller followed with bombs from the right corner and the top left of the arc for a 36-29 lead.
Great ball movement ended the quarter with Pendleton finding Eller for an open layup and a 42-34 advantage.
The Hurricanes built an 11-point lead on Pendleton's corner 3 to open the fourth, and a mix of players hit key free throws to ice the game.
"One of our keys is to play up-tempo," Randolph said. "We want to get the ball down the court quick so the other team can't get set. We didn't shoot the ball well early, but this is our home gym and we knew it would come. If we can get better and better and have different people step up like tonight, we can make noise down the stretch."
Campbell scored 13 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter, while Duprey finished with 11 points and eight rebounds. Sam Bileau played solid defense for the visitors.
* Lady Hurricanes 69, Lady Mustangs 47
With senior point guard Dezah Lacy out with an injury, Madison Hayes was challenged by her coach to do even more on the court.
The state's reigning Class AAA Miss Basketball did exactly that as she scored a career-high 35 points and added 11 assists, 10 rebounds, four steals and three blocks.
"I told Madison we needed her to step up even more," East Hamilton coach Hunter Gremore said. "Madison has to touch the ball every time down the court in our offense, because when she does it opens things for everybody else."
Eliziah Laboo was a dominant force down lo scoring 16 points.
The Lady Hurricanes fed off each other's energy and built a seven-point halftime lead.
Soon after sinking her third 3-pointer, Hayes found her younger sister McKenna crashing to the hoop for the score as she was knocked to the court. Laboo and Madison soon after followed with old-fashioned three-point plays of their own.
"Sharing the ball was the best thing we did all night," Hayes said. "Laboo did a great job on both ends and everybody stepped up on the offensive end, so it gave me the open lanes to score as well. We all fired each other up."
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @PMacCoon.