Terrence Hamilton’s intentions were good, but for one isolated moment in the second half, his execution wasn’t.
Hamilton missed a breakaway dunk with 3:35 left in the second half, but that was his only offensive miscue in the final 20 minutes.
Hamilton, who was shut out in the first half, hit seven of his eight second-half shots and scored 17 points to lead Catawba to a 87-77 win against Livingstone at New Trent Gym.
Hamilton, like his Catawba teammates, attacked the basket at will in the second half. Fourteen of the Indians’ 17 second-half field goals — including two Hamilton dunks — came in the paint.
The Indians shot 59 percent from the floor in the second half.
“At halftime we became more focused on pounding that thing inside,” Catawba coach Jim Baker said. “We got it inside, and all my big kids can score fairly well inside.”
The Indians (3-0) held a slim 36-34 advantage at the break and led by only four points with 17 minutes left to go.
That’s when Hamilton, who missed all four of his shots in the first half, went to work. He put in five of Catawba’s next seven field goals and had 10 points as the Indians established a 60-50 lead with 11:20 to play.
Hamilton’s first dunk put Catawba ahead 49-42, and he got another one with 4:52 left to give the Indians a 76-60 lead.
“Me and (Brian Carter), we usually use our dunks to get the team motivated, to pump them up,” Hamilton said. “It usually works.”
Hamilton, who had 12 rebounds and was one of three Indians with a double-double, would have been perfect in the second half had he not clanged his final dunk attempt of the back of the rim.
“I misestimated it,”he said.
Duke Phipps led the Indians with 22 points, and Carter and Alex Luyk joined Hamilton in the double-double club.
Carter had 21 points and 13 boards, and Luyk scored 11 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.
Carter gave Catawba its first double-digit lead in the second half with an acrobatic left-handed layup that bounced off the back of the rim four times before falling in. Carter was fouled on the play, and his free throw put the Indians ahead 54-44 with 13:50 left.
“They’re kind of small down low, they run a four-guard set, so we just tried to pound it down low,” Carter said. “We had an advantage down low.”
Catawba’s size proved too much for Livingstone (1-4) to handle, but the Blue Bears’ quickness gave the Indians fits in the first half.
The Indians scored the first seven points and jumped out to a 16-4 lead three minutes into the game.
Catawba hit eight of its first 13 shots, including four 3-pointers, to lead 21-8. But the Indians then missed 11 out of their next 12.
Livingstone’s Jerome LaGrange, who finished with 20 points, 11 rebounds and four assists, led the Blue Bear charge. He scored five points in 17 seconds to cut Catawba’s lead to 24-23 with 8:49 left in the half.
Livingstone grabbed its first lead of the game at 28-26 less than three minutes later.
“We got back into our system,” Livingstone coach Buck Joyner said. “I think they were a little intimidated by them at first, and once they realized they could play with them, they settled down.”
Said Catawba coach Jim Baker, “We knocked down a lot of 3s, and I think that
3-point shot sort of makes you lazy. Give them credit, they were running the floor, and that’s one of the things I think we do really well at.”
n
NOTES: Early in the second half, the news that Catawba’s football team had defeated Valdosta State was announced during a timeout. “I said, ‘Alright boys, let’s go out and pull this thing out right now. If they can do it, we can do it,’ ”Baker said. ... The Blue Bears, who came into the game averaging 23.0 turnovers a game, committed only 12 on Saturday. ... Livingstone center Chris Johnson scored 18 points and had nine rebounds, and J.C. Henry had 12 points to give the Blue Bears three players in double figures. ... Catawba hit 16 of 21 free throws in the second half.
n
Contact Bret Strelow at 704-707-4258 or bstrelow@salisburypost.com
.
Today's News
