Hamilton girls hoops manage to keep dream season alive
The 3-point attempt bounced off the rim, then the backboard, then the rim, then the rim once more. It danced there, teasing Gilbert by keeping its season alive for one split-second longer. Maybe the Tigers would really do this. Maybe they would erase a 13-point fourth quarter deficit, eliminate the No. 1 team in Arizona and march into the Open Division semi-finals.
Instead, the shot rolled off that last bounce, smacked the floor and all but extinguished Gilbert’s hopes. Nearly two minutes remained, but this was Gilbert’s chance. After consecutive threes, Gilbert had trimmed Chandler Hamilton’s lead to seven. For a moment, it was nearly four.
But when that third 3-point attempt, from Morgan Evenson, failed to go down, the Tigers finally started to sag their shoulders. They started to walk, 30 minutes of frenetic energy having worn them down. On the other end of the floor, Hamilton could finally breathe, ultimately pulling away with a 55-43 win.
The next task — a neutral court date with reigning Open Division champion Phoenix Desert Vista — will be even tougher for Hamilton.
“They've got great athletes, great guard play and size,” Hamilton coach Trevor Neider said. But that’s a challenge for another day. Thursday was about celebration.
“Just enjoy it,” Neider said, relaying his message to his team.
Early on, that would have been difficult for Hamilton to do. The Huskies fell behind 10-2 and were forced into an early timeout when Gilbert freshman Caia Campbell punctuated a 10-0 run with a corner three.
“We just weren't doing anything (right). We were playing our coverages wrong,” Neider said. “I think we were sped up in our minds instead of taking a breath and slowing down.”
The timeout, though, didn’t stem Gilbert’s momentum. The Tigers quickly got two more threes, both from Evenson, and took a 16-6 lead into the quarter break.
That’s when Hamilton settled into the game. Throughout the first quarter, the Huskies were unable to get the ball inside to 6-foot-6 sophomore center CJ Hinder, whom Gilbert hounded with persistent double teams. In the second quarter, Hamilton mixed up its sets, forcing Gilbert to keep more players on the perimeter and getting the ball to Hinder with more consistency.
That change proved to be crucial. Gilbert, with no started over 5-foot-10, had no answer for Hinder’s size. She scored eight points in the second quarter alone, helping earn Hamilton a 25-23 halftime lead.
“Once she sees one go through the hoop, she starts to believe,” Neider said. “… And she just gets on a roll and the girls get excited for her and the momentum and the positivity they just give each other makes it snowball into great things.”
For Hamilton, those great things continued into the second half. After Gilbert briefly tied the game at 31-31 midway through the third quarter, the Huskies pulled away. They finished the quarter on an 8-0 run that senior Savanna Creal punctuated with a finish through traffic.
Creal ended the game with a team-high 15, just ahead of Hinder’s 12. Campbell led all scorers with 17 in the losing effort.
Again, it was Creal who proved crucial in the fourth. After Evenson’s miss that extinguished Gilbert’s last-ditch comeback attempt, Creal calmly sank a pair of free throws, giving Hamilton a nine-point lead from which it would never look back.
“There's no easy path and we know every game's a battle,” Neider said. “And we say, ‘You've gotta bring your A game every night.’ And luckily we're doing it.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Hamilton girls hoops slips by Gilbert to keep dream season alive
