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.
