Published: January 05, 2008 12:20 am            

BOYS BB: Kats’ best, good enough

Kokomo outstanding in all phases while routing Peru

Second-year Kokomo coach Brian McCauley is still looking for that coach’s dream — a 32-minute run of basketball excellence.

He didn’t get it Friday night at Memorial Gymnasium, but he did see his team close in on the quest for quality. And on this night, he was pretty pleased with the 26 or so minutes of outstanding team play that he did get.

Kokomo improved to 5-3 and along the way showed its continued improvement in racing past Peru 60-44.

The Kats defended well, limiting the 4-5 Tigers to just 15 of 45 field goal accuracy (33 percent) and hit on a season best percentage of their own — 61 percent.

“That’s our best defensive effort of the season,” McCauley said. “We did an outstanding job on their two very good offensive players — [Jairus] Burt and [Wes] Zimmerman.”

Burt scored 11 points while being held to just eight shots and Zimmerman finished the night 2 of 12 from the field.

McCauley was excited about the defensive efforts of Alston Andrews and Tyrone Brown, who were the primary defenders on Peru’s top two scorers, but he credited the entire team.

“Anytime you hold an opponent to 33 percent shooting, you’re getting great team defense,” he said. “Everyone was helping out, doing their jobs.”

Kokomo’s offensive numbers were as good as McCauley could hope for.

The Kats hit 22 of 36 shots, including 7 of 12 from 3-point range. And a huge telling factor in the way those baskets were scored were the 14 assists turned in on those 22 field goals.

Sophomore T.J. Weir turned in a game-high 19-point performance that included 5 of 7 shooting from beyond the arc. His line score gets more impressive with three assists and three steals in 28 minutes of play.

“We had really good ball movement and our guys did a nice job finding our spot-up shooter Weir,” McCauley said. “He was knocking them down. And look at Andrews’ numbers — six assists, three steals and just two turnovers in 29 minutes.”

Junior center Patrick Hopkins turned in a solid outing with 14 points and a team-high eight boards. He also scored six consecutive points during a 10-point Wildkat run in the fourth quarter that put the game out of reach.

“Patrick did some really nice things for us, but I was really pleased with his rebounding,” McCauley said. “He ripped some boards down from above the rim and you don’t see that often at the high school level.”

The Kats led 15-10 at the quarter and 32-26 at half before distancing themselves from the Tigers in the third quarter. Weir hit a pair of 3-pointers in that period and freshman Parker Salinas added a three-point play.

Peru coach Eric Thompson thought Kokomo’s defense, which included five blocks and nine steals, may have intimidated his squad.

“Their blocked shots bothered us and yes, we were a little intimidated,” he said. “That was disappointing. Too many times we would get inside, but when Kokomo’s defenders would belly-up, we backed out rather than be aggressive.

“Kokomo is very athletic and on the offensive end, their players showed they know their roles. They got the ball to the guys who can score.”

Kokomo’s only real lapse on the night came in the opening three minutes of the fourth quarter after opening a 49-32 lead. On four possessions, Kokomo had a turnover and three missed shots, while Peru went on a five-point run during its most determined stretch of the contest. McCauley stopped the run after a timeout.

“Peru had three offensive rebounds on those four possessions,” McCauley said. “At that timeout we challenged the players to take better care of the basketball, get back on the boards and keep attacking offensively.”

The Kats did all the above. Jacob Blackamore scored off a drive before Hopkins went on a six-point run of his own. The Kats ended the 10-point run with the best five seconds of the night — a perfectly executed fastbreak — Andrews to Weir to Blackamore.

Tonight, Kokomo travels to McCutcheon, 6-1, after beating Noblesville Friday night.

        

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