The University boys opened play in the Phil Cox Memorial Holiday Tournament by dropping a tight 63-61 contest to the host Kokomo Wildkats.
The Trailblazers had no answer for Kokomo’s 6-10 foreign exchange student Flory Bidunga. The sophomore had 32 points, 17 rebounds and five blocked shots. Bidunga made 14 of 15 field goal attempts.
Sophomore Sabien Cain paced University with 19 points. Senior Larry Pierce had 17 points and six rebounds with sophomore Robert Russell adding 15 points on 6 for 7 shooting.
The first half was a back and forth affair with neither team leading by more than six points. The Trailblazers led 16-15 after one quarter, before the Wildkats used a 9-0 run early in the second period to take a 24-19 lead. Cain had an old fashioned three point play with two seconds left in the half to pull University within 35-32 at the break.
The Blazers got off to a quick start in the third quarter. Russell score and when Cain found Nate Jeffrey ahead of the pack for an easy basket the Kokomo lead was just 37-36. After Kokomo’s Zion Bellamy hit a three pointer, baskets by Pierce and Russell knotted to score at 40. University took their last lead of the night at 42-40 on a Pierce basket with 3:52 left in the third quarter, but the Trailblazers did not score again in the period and trailed 46-42 entering the final quarter.
Kokomo had a 53-46 lead with five minutes remaining Russell scored on a driving basket and Kahmi Bracey stole the inbound pass and scored to get University within 53-50. The Blazers trailed by 59-52 with less than two and a half minutes remaining before they mounted a final charge. Cain scored and Russell added two foul shots to make it 59-56.
University had the ball down just three with over a minute left but couldn’t convert. Bellamy made two free throws with 48 seconds left before Cain answered with 37 seconds left. Kokomo missed the front end of a one-and-one with 24 seconds left, but Bidunga was there for the offensive rebound and kicked it back outside. Bellamy split two foul shots with 20 seconds left for a 62-58 Kokomo lead.
University came right back and Pierce hit a three pointer with seven seconds on the clock. Kokomo split a pair of foul shots with 3.7 seconds remaining. The Trailblazers pushed the ball up the court, but lost the ball out of bounds as the final horn sounded.
University coach Brandon Lafferman was proud of his team’s effort.”Overall our team showed a lot tonight about how we are going to hopefully compete for the rest of the season, regardless of who we are playing. I was proud of our effort and execution for the majority of the game. I thought we had a couple of hiccups offensively late third quarter, early fourth quarter that caused us to get in a seven-point hole, which in this game was big enough lead for them to hold on. I thought Robert Russell really grew up tonight as a sophomore point guard playing against a 4A team. He was fantastic.”
The result left both teams with a 6-3 record. University will play two games in the consolation bracket on Thursday. At noon, University will play South Bend Riley. The Blazers’ second game will be at 4 p.m. against either South Bend Adams or county foe Guerin Catholic.
GC FALLS IN CLOSE GAME
Guerin Catholic also dropped a close game in their opener at the tournament, falling to Warren Central 52-50.
The Golden Eagles led 12-6 after the first quarter before the Warriors cut that advantage to 17-15 at halftime. Guerin Catholic held on to a 33-30 lead after three quarters, but the Warriors scored 22 points in the fourth period to get the win.
Will Grissom scored 15 points to pace the Golden Eagles, with Lucas Parker making four 3-pointers for 12 points. Grissom and Josh Holba each collected six rebounds, while Jack Cherry had five rebounds and five assists.
Guerin Catholic will play South Bend Adams in a 10 a.m. consolation game. Both the Golden Eagles and the Trailblazers will play their morning games at Indiana University-Kokomo. The seventh-place game also will be played at IU-Kokomo at 4 p.m., with the fifth-place game to be played at Kokomo’s Memorial Gym, also at 4 p.m.
WARREN CENTRAL 52, GUERIN CATHOLIC 50
Guerin Catholic FG FT TP PF
Jack Cherry 1-4 0-0 2 2
Robert Sorensen 4-10 0-0 8 2
Will Grissom 6-14 3-7 15 2
Josh Holba 2-5 1-1 5 4
Lucas Parker 4-7 0-0 12 1
Aden Cannon 0-2 1-2 1 3
Kamea Chandler 3-3 0-0 7 0
Matthew Etchison 0-0 0-1 0 0
Totals 20-45 5-11 50 14
Score by Quarters
Warren Central 6 9 15 22 – 52
Guerin Catholic 12 5 16 17 – 50
Guerin Catholic 3-point shooting (5-14) Parker 4-7, Chandler 1-1, Sorensen 0-4, Grissom 0-2.
Guerin Catholic rebounds (28) Grissom 6, Holba 6, Cherry 5, Sorensen 4, Parker 3, Cannon 1, Chandler 1, team 2.
KOKOMO 63, UNIVERSITY 61
University FG FT TP PF
Nate Jeffrey 2-7 0-0 4 5
Kahmi Bracey 2-4 2-2 6 4
Robert Russell 6-7 2-2 15 1
Larry Pierce 7-14 0-1 17 0
Seth Hogg 0-4 0-0 0 5
Sabien Cain 7-14 3-3 19 2
Bryce Gray 0-1 0-0 0 0
Steven Scott 0-0 0-0 0 1
Totals 24-51 7-8 61 18
Score by Quarters
University 16 16 10 19 – 61
Kokomo 15 20 11 17 – 63
University 3-point shooting (6-18) Pierce 3-3, Cain 2-7, Russell 1-2, Jeffrey 0-3, Hogg 0-2, Bracey 0-1.
University rebounds (24) Pierce 6, Russell 5, Hogg 5, Jeffrey 2, Cain 2, Bracey 1, team 3.