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Big Blue battle to 1st GMC win

Christian Jones scores 14 and Breon Boyd adds 10 with 9 rebounds.

Hamilton's Christian Jones (2) had a game-high and career-high 14 points in Friday night's home game against Sycamore. Also pictured is Sycamore's Joey Gruden, the son of Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden. Contributed photo by Robert Leifheit

Leifheit Hamilton's Christian Jones (2) had a game-high and career-high 14 points in Friday night's home game against Sycamore. Also pictured is Sycamore's Joey Gruden, the son of Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden. Contributed photo by Robert Leifheit

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By Jay Morrison, Staff Writer 2:40 AM Saturday, January 14, 2012

HAMILTON — The Hamilton High School boys basketball team never trailed Friday night. But Big Blue never breathed easy either.

Leading by as many as 10 in the second half, Hamilton had to fight off a scrappy Sycamore team in the closing minutes to pull out a 45-43 victory at the HHS Athletic Center.

“Earlier in the year we lost a couple of games like this,” HHS coach Tim Robinson said. “When you have a chance to win one, you have to close it out and win it. It was good to see these kids get a win and get their confidence up a little bit.”

The victory moved Hamilton to 3-8 overall and 1-5 in the Greater Miami Conference and snapped an 11-game league losing streak dating back to last year.

“I think they wanted that game a little more than we did,” Sycamore coach David Moss said after watching his team slip to 5-7, 1-5 GMC.

“We told our guys they were going to come out and play hard, looking for their first league win, and that’s what they did,” Moss continued. “They got the job done, and we didn’t.”

Hamilton sophomore Christian Jones led all scorers with a career-high 14 points, setting the tone early by hitting his first two 3-pointers.

“I’ve been struggling a lot lately, so I really worked hard on my shooting this week,” Jones said. “A lot of it is mental, just being more confident with my shot. When I hit those first two, that really gave me some confidence.”

Senior post player Breon Boyd also was key, coming off the bench to score 10 points and grab a game-high nine rebounds as Big Blue marked a 40-29 edge on the glass.

“We got in some foul trouble with our big boy (senior A.J. Williams, a Michigan football recruit), and we didn’t have anybody else big enough to handle Boyd,” Moss said. “That really got them going in the second quarter.”

Hamilton jumped out to a 7-0 lead to start the game, but Sycamore tied it 10-10 at the first stop. But Boyd scored six of his 10 points in the second quarter to help Big Blue take the lead for good.

“Breon came up big,” Robinson said. “We brought him off the bench, and he gave us a good spark. And I was really happy for Christian. We’ve been waiting for that. He shoots the ball so well and he’s such a good kid who works really hard, so it was nice to see him have a big night.”

Still, with all of that going its way, Hamilton was clinging to a two-point lead with under a minute to go and Sycamore in possession of the ball. But the defense got a couple of big stops and Keimon Sims, who added eight points and seven rebounds, and Quintin Bailey closed things out at the free throw line.

HHS made 9-of-12 from the stripe in the fourth quarter and 15-of-23 for the game. Sycamore went 2-of-11 on the night.

Despite his foul trouble, Williams led the Aves with 11 points in 21 minutes, while junior Joey Gruden, the son of Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden, added nine.

HHS heads to St. Xavier tonight.

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