Hamilton caught fire in the fourth quarter and handed Talawanda a 55-34 loss Saturday in a boys basketball game.

Hamilton (3-5, 1-3 GMC) led Talawanda 37-29 after three quarters and then outscored the Braves 18-5 in a fourth quarter marked by a stretch of great play by the Big Blue as they put an exclamation point on a win this season.

“We have not shot the ball that well in a long time,” Hamilton coach Tim Robinson said. “We had an hour-and-a-half workout today when we told our kids they have go to start finishing games. I thought we played a great second half.”

Talawanda (1-6, 1-2 SWOC) took the opening tip in the game and drew a foul while shooting just three seconds into the game but missed both free throws. Hamilton got a three-pointer 21 seconds later from Quintin Bailey and never trailed. Hamilton raced to a lead of 18-6 after the first quarter and lengthened that to 27-14 with 2:20 to go in the half.

The Braves got a trey from Nolan Robinson, a pair of free throws from Colin Kimiecik and a basket by Austin Davidson in a 47-second span, however, to cut the Big Blue lead to six points, at 27-21 and put themselves in position to make a move in the second half. Hamilton scored one more time in the half to make the score and eight-point spread at the break.

The teams played to an 8-8 standoff in the third quarter and Hamilton dominated play in the final quarter to win going away.

Hamilton’s players seemed to go into a stall early in the second quarter, passing up shots and dribbling about the backcourt rather than attacking the basket. Robinson said that was not due to the game plan.

“I think they became passive against their zone. We wanted to attack. We did not want to play slowdown,” Robinson said. “(Talawanda) stayed in the game. But after that, we did better.”

A weary looking Talawanda coach Bobby Lipps slumped into the chair in his office after the game.

“We played two bad quarters, the first and the fourth. You can’t win when you play two bad quarters,” Lipps said. “The kids played hard. They competed. They just made bad decisions. We had 26 turnovers as a team. When we have less than 15 turnovers, we are fine. More than that is trouble. We do not have that one guard who gets everyone to do what we need. We just have to make good decisions.”

Hamilton’s Christian Jones scored 23 points to lead all scorers while teammate A’Shon Riggins was also in double figures, with 11 points.

The only Talawanda player in double figures was Colton Adams, with 12.

Hamilton will play their next game at Fairmont Thursday while Talawanda will next see action at Little Miami next Friday.