Hamilton Southeastern gave the No. 1 team in Class 4A all it could handle on Saturday, taking Homestead down to the final seconds before a buzzer-beating 3-pointer got the Spartans past the Royals 56-53 in a home game.
Homestead led 15-11 after the first quarter and 29-21 at halftime. Southeastern made a run in the third quarter, pouring in 20 points to lead 41-38.
The game was tied at 50-50 with 2:45 left when the Spartans’ Grant Simmons scored while being fouled, then made the free throw for the three-point play. John McCall hit a 3-pointer to tie the game back up at 53-53 at the 2:15 mark.
“The Royals forced a turnover with just under two minutes left,” said HSE coach Brian Satterfield. “We worked the ball for 30 seconds but didn’t find a good look.”
Southeastern held the ball and took a timeout with six seconds left. The Spartans got a deflection, recovered the ball with 1.9 seconds left, then hit a fadeaway 3-pointer at the buzzer.
“We had great team defense all game long,” said Satterfield. “We continue to improve and hope to build on this tough loss.” The coach said his team “gave tremendous effort” in the second half.
Dalton Retzner scored 16 points for the Royals, followed by McCall with 13 points and seven rebounds. Retzner and Vinny Buccilla each collected five rebounds, and Buccilla and McCall both dished out four assists.
Southeastern is 9-7 and finishes its six-game homestand Tuesday by playing Southport.
HOMESTEAD 56, HAMILTON SOUTHEASTERN 53
Southeastern FG FT TP PF
Alex Totton 2-5 0-0 5 3
Dalton Retzner 6-11 4-4 16 3
Vinny Buccilla 2-5 2-2 6 3
Sam Jacobs 3-6 1-2 7 2
John McCall 6-11 0-1 13 0
Isaac Bowman 2-3 0-0 6 2
Mohammaed Awad 0-0 0-0 0 1
Jason Stutz 0-3 0-0 0 4
Loudon Sundling 0-1 0-0 0 0
Totals 21-45 7-9 53 18
Score by Quarters
Homestead 15 14 9 18 – 56
Southeastern 11 10 20 12 – 53
Southeastern 3-point shooting (4-13) Bowman 2-3, Totton 1-3, McCall 1-2, Stutz 0-2, Retzner 0-1, Buccilla 0-1, Jacobs 0-1.
Southeastern rebounds (23) McCall 7, Retzner 5, Buccilla 5, Bowman 2, Totton 1, Jacobs 1, team 2.