Another night, another hard-fought win for the Hamilton Heights boys basketball team.
The Huskies played at Guerin Catholic Saturday night in an all-county clash and won 68-62. The game was close all the way through, and it wasn’t sealed until Gus Etchison converted a three-point play with less than 10 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
“It was a game of runs,” said Huskies coach Chad Ballenger. “We were up one at half, got up maybe four or five. It just stayed that way, it was back and forth.”
The Golden Eagles led 15-13 after the first quarter, with Bernie McGuinness scoring eight of those points. The Huskies managed to get in front 27-26 by halftime; Hudson Hochstedler helped out with seven points.
The third period was just as close as the other two, and Heights maintained a 45-43 at the end of the quarter. Etchison scored seven points in the period, with McGuinness adding nine. The Huskies were able to stay ahead in the fourth, and finally clinched it with Etchison’s and-1 at the end.
“I thought we did a great job,” said Ballenger. We dictated the tempo late when we got the lead. We spread them out. We shot the ball really well tonight. We’re hard to guard when we’ve got multiple kids that score and tonight we had four in double figures. I thought we did a great job spreading the ball, passing it. We’re undersized and I thought we did a great job defensively.”
Etchison scored 17 points for the Huskies, with Hochstedler and Camron Knott each adding 14. Brent Pennington scored 12 points. Knott had four 3-pointers, while Etchison threw in three 3s.
Issiac Hickok collected four rebounds. Heights totaled 17 assists; Etchison had five, while Hochstedler and Lucas Letsinger both dished out four.
McGuinness led all scorers with 23, while Matthew Gillis added 12 points. Several Golden Eagles had good rebounding nights: McGuinness collected eight, Cameron Weitzel pulled six and Gillis had five, in addition to four assists each.
“This was a test early on in the season where we were faced with some pressure and a little bit of adversity,” said GC coach Bobby Allen. “We didn’t make great decisions at the end of the game. We fought hard. Our guys fought hard the entire way. They made some big-time plays down the stretch, made some big-time shots in the corners. We were not able to respond to that. It’s a learning experience for us, a long season to go.”
The Huskies are 3-0 for the season and began a five-game road trip with Saturday’s game at the Eagles Nest. Next up is a Tuesday game at Mount Vernon. Guerin Catholic is 2-2 and plays another home game next Saturday against Muncie Central.
HAMILTON HEIGHTS 68, GUERIN CATHOLIC 62
Heights FG FT TP PF
Gus Etchison 6-14 2-3 17 0
Issiac Hickok 1-4 0-0 3 1
Camron Knott 4-9 2-2 14 1
Brent Pennington 5-8 0-0 12 4
Hudson Hochstedler 5-6 2-2 14 1
Lucas Letsinger 1-4 0-0 3 1
Luke Carroll 2-2 1-1 5 1
Johnny Cambron 0-0 0-0 0 1
Totals 24-47 7-8 68 10
Heights 3-point shooting (13-29) Knott 4-7, Etchison 3-8, Pennington 2-5, Hochstedler 2-2, Hickok 1-4, Letsinger 1-3.
Heights rebounds (14) Hickok 4, Carroll 3, Etchison 2, Knott 2, Pennington 2, Hochstedler 1.
Guerin Catholic FG FT TP PF
Joseph Bobilya 3-8 0-0 7 2
Bernie McGuinness 10-16 2-2 23 2
Cameron Weitzel 2-4 0-0 5 3
Kameron Osswald 2-6 1-2 5 0
Matthew Gillis 6-10 0-1 12 1
Kaleb Edwards 3-4 1-2 7 4
Jack Parenteau 1-1 1-2 3 0
Dominic Ferrucci 0-0 0-0 0 0
Elijah Edwards 0-0 0-0 0 0
Will Grissom 0-0 0-0 0 0
Totals 27-49 5-9 62 12
Guerin Catholic 3-point shooting (3-10) Bobilya 1-3, Weitzel 1-3, McGuinness 1-2, Osswald 0-2.
Guerin Catholic rebounds (28) McGuinness 8, Weitzel 6, Gillis 5, K. Edwards 3, Bobilya 1, Parenteau 1, team 4.
Score by Quarters
Heights 13 14 18 23 – 68
Guerin Catholic 15 11 17 19 – 62
Guerin Catholic’s Cameron Weitzel had six rebounds and four assists for the Golden Eagles during their Saturday game with Hamilton Heights at the Eagles Nest. (Richie Hall)