Published: January 12, 2008 11:38 pm            

BOYS BB: Carmel outlasts Kokomo

After a 52-42 upset of heavily favored New Castle on Friday night, the Kokomo Wildkats had a chance to pull off another boys basketball shocker on Saturday against the Class 4A No. 3-ranked Carmel Greyhounds. The Kats gave the Hounds all they could handle, but it wasn’t enough as Carmel remained unbeaten with a 79-70 win at Memorial Gym.

Kokomo (6-5) scorched the nets on offense against Carmel, shooting a torrid 63.6 percent from the field for the night, but it wasn’t enough as Carmel used a 29-18 rebounding edge, including 15 offensive boards, and 14 Wildkat turnovers to produce the win.

The Greyhounds outscored Kokomo 24-11 in points off turnovers and 14-4 in second-chance points to offset Kokomo’s big edge at the free throw line. The Kats hit 22 of 34 from the line to only 13-19 for Carmel.

The 70 points posted by the Kats was the second-highest total allowed by the Hounds this season. Carmel came into the game allowing less than 50 points per game.

Carmel coach Mark Galloway had plenty of praise for Kokomo but was disappointed in his team’s defensive effort.

“We’ve got to learn from wins,” he said. “We didn’t do a very good job defensively. We fouled way too much, and I was pretty disappointed in that.

“[I was] very, very impressed with Kokomo,” he continued. “I thought they were very disciplined and well-coached — [Kokomo coach] Brian [McCauley’s] doing a great job with them. They were very prepared for a lot of things we were doing. This helps us tremendously because now we have to get back to work on Monday.”

For McCauley’s part, he took no comfort in the loss but praised his team’s effort.

“We’re not into moral victories,” he said. “Championship teams aren’t, and we want to be a championship program. We need to learn from this, understand how we can get better — coaches and players — and then move forward.

“We are extremely proud of our effort,” he added. “Unfortunately, to win basketball games it takes more than just effort. We have a phrase we use — play hard, play smart, play together. [Friday] I thought we did all of those things. We come back [Saturday] and we have great effort. At times we play smart, but the thing I was most discouraged with was the fact that we kind of got out of rhythm as a team. We didn’t play as well together as I wanted to.”

Early on, it appeared that Carmel (10-0) would take the easy win that most expected. The Greyhounds got out of the gate quickly, opening a 21-10 lead in the first six minutes behind six points each by Jordan Brewer, Stuart Douglas and Charlie Hanson. But Kokomo’s Patrick Hopkins canned six of his own as the Kats closed the first period with an 8-0 run to cut the margin to 21-18.

The game stayed close throughout the second stanza, and Kokomo took a 34-33 halftime lead as C.J. Reeves canned a 3-pointer late.

Carmel opened the third on a 7-0 run to go up 40-33, but the Kats clawed back behind seven points by Colton Summers. Carmel’s Daniel Moore hit a basket at the buzzer to put the Hounds ahead 53-49 heading to the fourth.

The teams swapped baskets early in the final stanza, but then Carmel went on a 9-1 tear, capped by Brewer’s slam dunk off an alley oop pass by Moore to take a 65-54 lead at the 4:19 mark. Kokomo cut the margin to 72-67 on Alston Andrews’ foul shots with 39 seconds left but got no closer. Moore canned a pair from the line, and Brewer put the game away with a hoop-and-harm play with 22 seconds left that put Carmel up 77-67.

Brewer led all scorers with 21 and all rebounders with 10. Hanson scored 19, Douglas had 16, and Moore added 14 for the Greyhounds.

Kokomo was paced by Hopkins’ 19-point effort, followed by Summers with 18, Andrews with 11, and T.J. Weir with 10.

        

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