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Big Blue shine  in tourney debut

Hamilton routs Glen Este, looks forward to Lakota East on Saturday.

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12:18 AM Tuesday, February 14, 2012

By Jay Morrison

Staff Writer

KINGS MILLS — The offensive struggles that plagued the Hamilton High School girls basketball team down the stretch of the regular season were nowhere to be found during Monday night’s Division I sectional tournament opener at Kings High School.

Junior Jillian Spurlock scored a career-high 32 points, senior Desiree Ash had 25 and senior Hannah Keene added a career-high 13 to lead Big Blue to a 78-57 victory against Glen Este.

“Jillian and Desiree both had really good games,” Hamilton coach Stefanie Miller said. “When we needed a basket, one of them came through. And Hannah was big, too. That’s what you need, a third or fourth person to step up and get tough rebounds and convert.”

Keene also grabbed 10 rebounds for her second career double-double to help No. 16 Big Blue (12-9) advance to face No. 4 Lakota East (13-7) in the sectional semifinals at 1 p.m. Saturday at Kings.

No. 18 Glen Este (10-11) had an offensive star of its own in junior guard Hannah Carson, who scored 24 of her career-high 26 points in the second half, including 17 in the third quarter when she went 5-of-6 from 3-point range.

“The scouting report was to never leave her and never help off of her, and we didn’t in the first half,” Miller said of Carson, who finished with eight 3-pointers to tie her own school record.

“In the second half, we kind of took her for granted,” Miller continued. “And she single-handedly brought them back in the game.”

Hamilton led by as much as 17 in the first half and still had a 15-point cushion at the break. After Carson’s fifth trey of the third quarter sliced the Big Blue lead to 48-45, Spurlock answered with a 3-pointer of her own to stop the run.

“Yeah, there’s a little bit of a challenge to match her, but mostly it was just us pulling together as a team,” said Spurlock, who also had nine rebounds, seven assists and five steals to go along with her 32 points.

And just when Glen Este clamped down on Spurlock, Ash took over, scoring Hamilton’s first five field goals of the fourth quarter.

“We’re the smallest team ever, and we just don’t guard very well,” Trojans coach Jeff Click said. “They just had too much offense for us.”

Not only did the 78 points mark a season high for Hamilton, it was one more than the team scored in its last two regular season games combined (82-37 loss to Princeton and a 48-40 loss to Lakota East).

The Thunderhawks also beat Big Blue 58-24 earlier in the season, but Miller said her team will be ready for them Saturday.

“The girls are definitely eager to play them again,” Miller said. “They’re chomping at the bit. They’re confident, and they understand that they can be as good as they want to be.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2193 or jmorrison@coxohio.com.

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