Hamilton heats up Los Molinos

The Hamilton varsity boys basketball team captured a road victory in Los Molinos on Wednesday night to creep over the .500 mark, soundly defeating the struggling Bulldogs, 63-39.

The hosts, who have dropped three straight, were shooting cold from the start and never really recovered. Hamilton jumped out to a 36-19 lead by halftime and put the game away with 10 field goals in the third quarter.

Brad Lohse drained a game-high 17 points, Omar Diaz scored 12 and Erik Smith had 11 to lead the Braves, who shot a remarkable 27-for-47 from the field (57 percent).

So much for home-team advantage, as Los Molinos limped to a 17-for-55 performance (31 percent), including 4-of-20 from 3-point range.

Jarred Brooks guided LM's offense with a surly double-double, scoring 14 points with 10 rebounds and three blocked shots. The Bulldogs, however, barely managed 20 boards as a team.

Hamilton survived poor ball control, as the Braves committed 24 turnovers compared to 17 by Los Molinos. Brent O'Dell and Jared Galbert each had four swipes and Thomas Dimitriadis had three.

Dimitriadis and J.C. Conrad worked hard on defense but LM allowed the Braves too many transition buckets, often sluggish to return to defense when the ball was lost.

Galbert wound up with six points and J.C. and Sean Conrad each scored four for the Bulldogs. Efrain Cardenas also turned in some quality minutes off the bench, maintaining what little intensity LM had left late in the game. Chris Fenske added seven points and Daniel Jones had six for Hamilton.

The Braves (1-0 MVL, 8-7) open a four-game homestand on Friday versus Biggs while Los Molinos (0-1 MVL, 11-6) tries to get back on track at East Nicolaus.