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Badin has hot hand in win against Big Blue

Rams shoot 66 percent from floor, missing only 3 of their final 20 shots to top Hamilton 63-49.

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By Jay Morrison, Staff Writer 12:37 AM Sunday, November 29, 2009

HAMILTON — The Hamilton High School boys basketball team couldn’t make the easy shots, and Badin couldn’t miss pretty much any kind of shot in the teams’ Foundation Game scrimmage at Mulcahey Gym.

Making 17 of their final 20 shots from the floor, the Rams pulled away for a 63-49 victory Saturday night, Nov. 28, in both squads’ final tuneup before the regular season begins next weekend.

“It helps when you make shots,” Badin coach Nick Argentati said. “I think a lot of it was shot selection. We took good shots, and that leads to a high shooting percentage a lot of times.”

Scott Purcell led the Rams with 24 points, including 9-of-9 from the free-throw line. As a team, Badin made 17-of-24 free throws (71 percent) and hit 21-of-32 (66 percent) from the floor.

Big Blue, on the other hand, knocked down only 9-of-20 free throws and 16-of-42 (38 percent) from the floor, with many of those misses coming inside the paint.

“We’ve got to make shots and find ways to score,” HHS coach Tim Robinson said. “We missed a lot of shots around the basket, and that was concerning to me. We got some open looks in the paint, and we’ve got to finish those.”

Cameron Jones led Big Blue with 15 points on five 3-pointers, and Robert Merz added 10 points.

Hamilton got as close as five in the second half when Jones hit back-to-back treys to trim the deficit to 38-33 with 3:09 left in the third quarter, but Purcell scored his team’s next 10 points and Badin maintained control the rest of the way.

“I don’t think there was any question that both teams were playing it like a real game,” Argentati said. “I know we definitely did. We played a lot of guys — 13 of them. And they all did a really good job when they were in there, whatever their role was.”

Colton Mehlman added nine points for the Rams, and Tyler Sanders chipped in six to go along with a team-high five rebounds.

For Big Blue, Sam Bachmann came off the bench to score seven points and grab a game-high eight rebounds.

Badin opens the regular season Friday at home against Talawanda, while Hamilton gets things going Saturday at Springfield.

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

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