KINGS MILLS — Smothering defensive play enabled the Hamilton High School girls basketball team to pull off the upset, Saturday, during the team’s 51-39 second round win over Lakota East in the Division I sectional tournament at Kings High School.
Hamilton (13-9) had lost twice to Greater Miami Conference foe Lakota East (14-7) during the regular season. The Thunderhawks throttled Big Blue 58-24 in December. Then, just last week, East eked out a 48-40 win.
“Coming into this game, we knew that Lakota East is one of the top programs in our league,” said Hamilton coach Stefanie Miller, “But we had nothing to lose. We have a very tough conference, but I have a very good team. I think we just proved that.”
Pesky. Stingy. Frustrating.
Whatever term you’d use to describe Hamilton’s defensive effort, it truly spelled trouble for no. 4-seeded Lakota East this time.
Hamilton’s 2-3 zone defense, with Benedicte Kage and Jillian Spurlock primarily out front with fellow starters DeSatin Curtis, Emma Goins and Desiree Ash across the baseline, smothered Lakota East’s offense.
East hit only 26.3 percent (15-of-57) of its shots from the floor.
“It’s hard to beat a team three times, sure. I mean, they have some really good players on their team. We couldn’t execute our gameplan. The shots just didn’t fall,” East coach Nikki Drew said.
Spurlock and Ash said their team prides itself on playing defense.
“We locked out on defense this time and we definitely played together as a team,” Spurlock said.
“We worked hard on closing out on the 3-point shots, and we definitely held them to very few,” added Ash. East converted just 2-of-22 3-point tries.
Spurlock finished with a game-high 22 points, and Ash was next with 15.
Sixteenth seeded Hamilton will face no.11 seed Ursuline for the sectional title, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Kings High.`
Thunderhawk seniors Molly Blomer and Alyssa Grevenkamp led East with 11 and 10 points respectively in their final high school game.
“I can’t say enough about the seniors. They completely changed who we were. Four years ago we had five wins, and then last season we had 19. They really did set a legacy for what should be East basketball. I’m proud of them for that. They were great girls to coach,” Drew said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2851 or jbombatch@coxohio.com.