By RICHIE HALL
ARCADIA – Saturday night’s Guerin Catholic-Hamilton Heights boys basketball game would be described as a learning experience for both teams, and that’s a good thing.
The Golden Eagles toughed out a win over the Huskies 60-58 at the Heights gym in front of a good-sized crowd. It was a hard-fought rivalry game that featured several lead changes and momentum swings, and both coaches focused on the positives once the contest had finished.
“Extremely happy to get the win,” said Guerin Catholic coach Bobby Allen. His team took the lead for good at the end of the third quarter on a 3-pointer from Robert Sorensen, and the Golden Eagles were able to hang on in the face of a tough-minded Huskies team.
“We gutted some things out at the end,” said Allen. “They played extremely hard throughout. We had a couple opportunities to pull away from them and they stayed in the game.”
Heights skipped out to a 5-0 lead, with all five points coming from Evan Williamson. Sorensen got GC on the board with a triple, and that was followed by the Huskies’ Cooper Vondersaar making a traditional three-point play. Heights led 8-3 at the 4:33 mark of the first.
The Golden Eagles then took off on an 11-0 run, which would be the longest run of the game. Sorensen added five points, Julian Melendez scored on back-to-back baskets, and a putback by Ty Sanders gave Guerin Catholic a 14-8 lead. Williamson hit a jumper at the end of the quarter to cut that lead to 14-10.
The second period was nothing but lead changes – eight of them, in fact. Heights’ Maddox Bohland scored the first five points of the game to push the Huskies in front 15-14, then Lucas Parker got the Golden Eagles ahead 16-15 with a floater.
The back and forth continued all the way to the halftime buzzer. Bohland drained a pair of free throws to give Heights a 24-21 lead, then Kyle Shadoan tied it up with a 3-pointer. Bohland made a layin to get the Huskies up 26-24, but Shadoan struck again, with another triple. Guerin Catholic thus led 27-26 at halftime.
The Golden Eagles led 36-31 late in the third quarter; Sorensen hit another 3 and Kamea Chandler got going with six points. Williamson got hot again late in the third by pouring in nine points: Two 3s followed by an and-1. The Huskies led 37-36, but Sorensen’s fourth triple of the game gave GC a 39-37 lead to end the third.
Guerin Catholic enjoyed its largest lead of the game with under five minutes to go, getting ahead 46-38 after Dylan Murans made a dunk. Heights made a 6-0 run to quickly cut that advantage to 46-44; Bohland made a free throw and layin, then Williamson was good on his second and-1 of the game.
Hamilton Heights’ Maddox Bohland scored 20 points for the Huskies. (Richie Hall)
But the Golden Eagles answered that with a 6-0 run of their own. Sorensen started it with a layin, then Chandler scored off a steal and followed that with a layin. Guerin had matched its biggest lead at 52-44.
Heights got that lead down to 56-54 with under a minute to go after John Irion made a layin. The Golden Eagles finished the game from the free-throw line – or more specifically, Jack Cherry did. The junior, playing for the first time this year, went 4-of-4 from the line in the final 32.7 seconds to seal the win.
“We kept fighting,” said Allen. “We talked in the locker room. I’m proud of them for the win. We told our guys to put themselves in the back seat and put the team in the front seat and that’s what we did tonight.”
Sorensen finished the game with five 3-pointers on his way to 21 points, while Chandler added 12 points. Sorensen collected seven rebounds, followed by Ty Sanders with six and Melendez with five. Cherry dished out six assists.
Bohland led the Huskies with 20 points, with Williamson adding 19, including three 3s. Irion had four rebounds.
Heights coach Chad Ballenger was happy with the effort, saying his team “grew up a lot this week” – after a Tuesday win over Clinton Central where they weren’t satisfied with their efforts, the Huskies had “really good practices” on Wednesday and Thursday, then gave good fights against New Castle on Friday and the Golden Eagles on Saturday.
“With this group, there’s just a lot of inexperience,” said Ballenger. “We don’t have a lot of returners. Most years we got a lot of guys back, and now we don’t. So, we’re learning. But Friday we grew up, and we took another step tonight. We defended well and started putting the pieces together.”
Ballenger also said he really liked the team’s effort. “Our attitude was great,” he said.
The Golden Eagles are 2-2 and play at Westfield next Saturday. Heights is 1-3 and hosts Lewis Cass on Friday to open Hoosier Conference East Division play.
GUERIN CATHOLIC 60, HAMILTON HEIGHTS 58
Guerin Catholic FG FT TP PF
Robert Sorensen 7-11 2-2 21 3
Kamea Chandler 5-9 2-2 12 3
Josh Holba 0-1 0-0 0 1
Lucas Parker 1-4 0-0 2 1
Dylan Murans 2-5 0-0 4 3
Jack Cherry 0-2 4-6 4 2
Ty Sanders 2-3 0-0 4 1
Julian Melendez 2-2 1-2 5 1
Malcolm Houze 0-1 0-0 0 1
Kyle Shadoan 2-2 2-2 8 1
Bryson Cardinal 0-0 0-0 0 0
Ben Grissom 0-2 0-0 0 1
Totals 21-42 11-14 60 18
Guerin Catholic 3-point shooting (7-21) Sorensen 5-9, Shadoan 2-2, Parker 0-3, Cherry 0-2, Murans 0-2, Houze 0-1, Chandler 0-1, Grissom 0-1.
Guerin Catholic rebounds (30) Sorensen 7, Sanders 6, Melendez 5, Houze 3, Holba 2, Parker 2, Cherry 1, Chandler 1, Murans 1, Cardinal 1, team 1.
Heights FG FT TP PF
Cooper Vondersaar 2-6 2-3 6 4
Maddox Bohland 6-12 7-11 20 3
John Irion 2-6 0-0 4 3
Sam Dawson 0-3 0-0 0 0
Evan Williamson 7-11 2-2 19 1
Phoenix Vondersaar 2-2 2-2 7 1
Simon Knott 0-0 2-2 2 2
Colin Kuhn 0-0 0-0 0 1
Totals 19-40 15-20 58 15
Heights 3-point shooting (5-14) Williamson 3-6, Bohland 1-3, P. Vondersaar 1-1, Dawson 0-3, C. Vondersaar 0-1.
Heights rebounds (16) Irion 4, Bohland 3, Dawson 3, Knott 3, Williamson 2, C. Vondersaar 1.
Score by Quarters
Guerin Catholic 14 13 12 21 – 60
Hamilton Heights 10 16 11 21 – 58