Hamilton leads Whiteoak to victory over Fayetteville
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
MOWRYSTOWN — Just a few seconds remained in regulation when Traeten Hamilton of Whiteoak took the final shot with the game on the line at homecoming for the Wildcats. As the ball sailed in the air, it kissed the glass and fell through the hoop to send the Wildcats to a 41-40 win over the visiting Fayetteville Rockets.
The Friday night Southern Hills Athletic Conference win didn’t just erase a 19-point lead that the Rockets built on two occasions in the second quarter, but they kept the Rockets from launching to a conference victory. In fact, the Wildcats didn’t score a single point in the first quarter, as they were held scoreless by the visitors at 15-0.
From the second quarter to the end of the game, Whiteoak (2-5, 6-7) outscored the Rockets, 41-25, and in the second half the scoring differential was 27-15.
One thing was for certain for the Wildcats on Friday night, it was like old times on homecoming. The gym was booming with cheers following the game-winning trey from Hamilton, and it was Whiteoak’s second win in conference play this season.
“Shots started falling for us in the second half,” WHS head coach Blake Kibler told The Highland County Press. “When shots don’t fall, with any team it is hard to keep going, and as seen in the first quarter, shots weren’t falling and hitting every part of the rim. Our guys are fighters … they are winners. They are hungry. We kept being positive with them and moving them step by step and moving them in the right direction, and they did the rest.
“They went on the big streak at the end, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
By the time the fourth quarter began, the Wildcats trailed 32-21 as each team scored seven points in the third frame. Even with the Rockets beginning the first frame with a free throw conversion, the Wildcats still didn’t bat an eye and continued to surge along.
Trailing 33-21 with just over 7:00 left in the game, Whiteoak scored two points off a layup by Michael Crowe. Following two points by the Rockets, WHS cut the Rockets’ lead to five points before the visitors called a timeout with 3:53 left in regulation.
In what was a 7-0 run from the 4:52 mark to the 3:54 mark of the fourth, WHS had a 3-pointer by Crowe, two free throw conversions by Zach Rand and a put-back basket off a rebound by Stephen Ross.
After returning to the court from the timeout and with the Wildcat faithful on their feet, Whiteoak continued to add to their scoring with a layup by Hamilton, and a 3-pointer from Ross from the corner in front of the WHS bench tied the game at 35 with 2:35 on the scoreboard.
Next, the Wildcats took their first lead of the game with a free throw by Hamilton at the 2:08 mark, only to see the lead go back to the Rockets on a layup by CJ McCulley with 1:41 on the clock.
The Wildcats tied the game for a second time with a free throw from Trever Yeager for a 37-37 score with 1:11 left in the SHAC contest. Hamilton eventually put the Wildcats ahead with a free throw of his own with 53 seconds remaining, but a three-point play by Fayetteville’s Zak Smyth gave the Rockets a 40-38 lead.
Fayetteville (4-4, 7-6) had a chance to potentially seal the win, but missed free throws gave the Wildcats one last chance, and they took full advantage of it with 8.9 seconds on the clock. That last chance came from Hamilton as he made the game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer for the win.
“We told them if we get the rebound, we are going, but spread out and Fayetteville is probably going to let us have the long ball,” Kibler said. “It panned out that way, but Traeten banking that shot in was great, and winners win. We keep saying that winners win.
“We keep saying to them, good things happen when you are patient and good things happen when you keep grinding. We keep telling them things are lining up for us, and after tonight, I feel we’ve passed the peak.”
For the game, seven Whiteoak players reached the scoring column with Ross leading the way with 11 points, followed by Crowe with eight and Hamilton with seven.
WHS also had six points from Yeager, four points by Zach Rand, three points by Brayden Yeager and two points from Charley Skinner.
A lot of the win doesn’t just go to the offensive heroics in the fourth quarter by the Wildcats, but to their defense, too. As mentioned before, the Wildcats held the Rockets to just 15 points in the second half, including eight points in the fourth quarter.
“We went into our diamond press,” Kibler said in explaining the difference of the first and second half. “We kept switching things. We’ve been waiting on switching defenses because we really wanted to hit every detail of every defense we want to run, and today we just let go and wanted to see what happened. That was the end result.
“We’ve been hitting with our zones and stuff like that, but it is coming together.”
As the Wildcats gradually chipped away at the lead of the Rockets from the second quarter on, the first frame might have been the unluckiest quarter for any team on Friday night as shot after shot taken by Whiteoak failed to sink through the hoop. The unmade baskets and forced turnovers by the Rockets saw Fayetteville take the aforementioned 15-0 lead at the end of the first frame.
The Rockets quickly built an 8-0 lead with 5:52 on the clock off points scored by Luke Wiederhold and Christopher Murphy. From there, Wiederhold pushed the Fayetteville advantage to 11-0 at the 3:54 mark, and by the time the quarter ended, baskets by McCulley and Clayton Ramey gave the Rockets a 15-point advantage.
Two baskets at the start of the second quarter by the Rockets from Wiederhold put the Wildcats down by 19 points until a basket from Ross stopped the scoreless streak of Whiteoak and got the ball going.
After the Rockets regained their 19-point lead with 3:57 off two free throws by Brayden Yeager, Whiteoak woke up and began have the luck and momentum swing in their direction as they eventually made it a 25-14 deficit at halftime.
In the second for WHS, they had 3-pointers from Crowe and Yeager and six points by Ross.
The third saw WHS and the Rockets each score seven points, leaving the score at 32-21 in favor of the Rockets.
For the game, Fayetteville was led in scoring by Wiederhold with 15 points and Smyth with 12 points.
With two wins in the past three days, the confidence for the Wildcats is building, and their head coach notices the difference in his team since the season began.
“They are winning, and they like winning,” Kiber said with a smile. “Their confidence, their attitude, the whole atmosphere … every person here tonight going crazy for the team, we’ve been missing that.
“The pride … the pride … they just kept grinding and they are getting smarter. When they are down big, the guys aren’t self-destructing all the way. Sometimes they can self-destruct some and not run the offense and force things, but in the second half we slowed it down and ran the offense, and that helped, too. Sometimes we play too fast, and when we do that we aren’t running anything.
“I’m proud. It is a good day to be a Wildcat. We are getting there, and sky’s the limit right now.”
Prior to the game, Megan Botts was crowned homecoming queen, and Trever Yeager was named homecoming king.
Next for the Wildcats is another home SHAC match against Manchester on Tuesday, Jan. 23.
• • •
On Wednesday, Jan. 17, the Whiteoak Wildcats traveled to Kentucky to face the Silver Grove Big Trains and won by a 81-38 score in their non-conference game.
Whiteoak dominated the game from start to finish, leading 29-7 at the end of the first quarter, and after scoring 23 more points in the second frame (while holding the Big Trains to nine points), the Wildcats led 52-16 at halftime.
In the second half, Whiteoak outscored their opponent, 17-14, and in the final frame they did so once again at 12-8.
For the game, Trever Yeager led WHS with 17 points, along with adding six assists, three rebounds and one block.
Traeten Hamilton followed with 12 points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals. Stephen Ross totaled 10 points and four rebounds.
WHS had nine points each from Ryan Roberts and Charley Skinner, and Michael Crowe and Zach Rand both totaled eight points. Also for the Wildcats, Clay Risner totaled four points, Logan Cummings tallied two points, Jacob Campbell netted one point and Josh Hughes scored a point.
In all, WHS was 12-of-21 from the free-throw line, as they also totaled five 3-pointers (Yeager with three, Hamilton with two) and 30 rebounds.
The Friday night Southern Hills Athletic Conference win didn’t just erase a 19-point lead that the Rockets built on two occasions in the second quarter, but they kept the Rockets from launching to a conference victory. In fact, the Wildcats didn’t score a single point in the first quarter, as they were held scoreless by the visitors at 15-0.
From the second quarter to the end of the game, Whiteoak (2-5, 6-7) outscored the Rockets, 41-25, and in the second half the scoring differential was 27-15.
One thing was for certain for the Wildcats on Friday night, it was like old times on homecoming. The gym was booming with cheers following the game-winning trey from Hamilton, and it was Whiteoak’s second win in conference play this season.
“Shots started falling for us in the second half,” WHS head coach Blake Kibler told The Highland County Press. “When shots don’t fall, with any team it is hard to keep going, and as seen in the first quarter, shots weren’t falling and hitting every part of the rim. Our guys are fighters … they are winners. They are hungry. We kept being positive with them and moving them step by step and moving them in the right direction, and they did the rest.
“They went on the big streak at the end, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
By the time the fourth quarter began, the Wildcats trailed 32-21 as each team scored seven points in the third frame. Even with the Rockets beginning the first frame with a free throw conversion, the Wildcats still didn’t bat an eye and continued to surge along.
Trailing 33-21 with just over 7:00 left in the game, Whiteoak scored two points off a layup by Michael Crowe. Following two points by the Rockets, WHS cut the Rockets’ lead to five points before the visitors called a timeout with 3:53 left in regulation.
In what was a 7-0 run from the 4:52 mark to the 3:54 mark of the fourth, WHS had a 3-pointer by Crowe, two free throw conversions by Zach Rand and a put-back basket off a rebound by Stephen Ross.
After returning to the court from the timeout and with the Wildcat faithful on their feet, Whiteoak continued to add to their scoring with a layup by Hamilton, and a 3-pointer from Ross from the corner in front of the WHS bench tied the game at 35 with 2:35 on the scoreboard.
Next, the Wildcats took their first lead of the game with a free throw by Hamilton at the 2:08 mark, only to see the lead go back to the Rockets on a layup by CJ McCulley with 1:41 on the clock.
The Wildcats tied the game for a second time with a free throw from Trever Yeager for a 37-37 score with 1:11 left in the SHAC contest. Hamilton eventually put the Wildcats ahead with a free throw of his own with 53 seconds remaining, but a three-point play by Fayetteville’s Zak Smyth gave the Rockets a 40-38 lead.
Fayetteville (4-4, 7-6) had a chance to potentially seal the win, but missed free throws gave the Wildcats one last chance, and they took full advantage of it with 8.9 seconds on the clock. That last chance came from Hamilton as he made the game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer for the win.
“We told them if we get the rebound, we are going, but spread out and Fayetteville is probably going to let us have the long ball,” Kibler said. “It panned out that way, but Traeten banking that shot in was great, and winners win. We keep saying that winners win.
“We keep saying to them, good things happen when you are patient and good things happen when you keep grinding. We keep telling them things are lining up for us, and after tonight, I feel we’ve passed the peak.”
For the game, seven Whiteoak players reached the scoring column with Ross leading the way with 11 points, followed by Crowe with eight and Hamilton with seven.
WHS also had six points from Yeager, four points by Zach Rand, three points by Brayden Yeager and two points from Charley Skinner.
A lot of the win doesn’t just go to the offensive heroics in the fourth quarter by the Wildcats, but to their defense, too. As mentioned before, the Wildcats held the Rockets to just 15 points in the second half, including eight points in the fourth quarter.
“We went into our diamond press,” Kibler said in explaining the difference of the first and second half. “We kept switching things. We’ve been waiting on switching defenses because we really wanted to hit every detail of every defense we want to run, and today we just let go and wanted to see what happened. That was the end result.
“We’ve been hitting with our zones and stuff like that, but it is coming together.”
As the Wildcats gradually chipped away at the lead of the Rockets from the second quarter on, the first frame might have been the unluckiest quarter for any team on Friday night as shot after shot taken by Whiteoak failed to sink through the hoop. The unmade baskets and forced turnovers by the Rockets saw Fayetteville take the aforementioned 15-0 lead at the end of the first frame.
The Rockets quickly built an 8-0 lead with 5:52 on the clock off points scored by Luke Wiederhold and Christopher Murphy. From there, Wiederhold pushed the Fayetteville advantage to 11-0 at the 3:54 mark, and by the time the quarter ended, baskets by McCulley and Clayton Ramey gave the Rockets a 15-point advantage.
Two baskets at the start of the second quarter by the Rockets from Wiederhold put the Wildcats down by 19 points until a basket from Ross stopped the scoreless streak of Whiteoak and got the ball going.
After the Rockets regained their 19-point lead with 3:57 off two free throws by Brayden Yeager, Whiteoak woke up and began have the luck and momentum swing in their direction as they eventually made it a 25-14 deficit at halftime.
In the second for WHS, they had 3-pointers from Crowe and Yeager and six points by Ross.
The third saw WHS and the Rockets each score seven points, leaving the score at 32-21 in favor of the Rockets.
For the game, Fayetteville was led in scoring by Wiederhold with 15 points and Smyth with 12 points.
With two wins in the past three days, the confidence for the Wildcats is building, and their head coach notices the difference in his team since the season began.
“They are winning, and they like winning,” Kiber said with a smile. “Their confidence, their attitude, the whole atmosphere … every person here tonight going crazy for the team, we’ve been missing that.
“The pride … the pride … they just kept grinding and they are getting smarter. When they are down big, the guys aren’t self-destructing all the way. Sometimes they can self-destruct some and not run the offense and force things, but in the second half we slowed it down and ran the offense, and that helped, too. Sometimes we play too fast, and when we do that we aren’t running anything.
“I’m proud. It is a good day to be a Wildcat. We are getting there, and sky’s the limit right now.”
Prior to the game, Megan Botts was crowned homecoming queen, and Trever Yeager was named homecoming king.
Next for the Wildcats is another home SHAC match against Manchester on Tuesday, Jan. 23.
• • •
On Wednesday, Jan. 17, the Whiteoak Wildcats traveled to Kentucky to face the Silver Grove Big Trains and won by a 81-38 score in their non-conference game.
Whiteoak dominated the game from start to finish, leading 29-7 at the end of the first quarter, and after scoring 23 more points in the second frame (while holding the Big Trains to nine points), the Wildcats led 52-16 at halftime.
In the second half, Whiteoak outscored their opponent, 17-14, and in the final frame they did so once again at 12-8.
For the game, Trever Yeager led WHS with 17 points, along with adding six assists, three rebounds and one block.
Traeten Hamilton followed with 12 points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals. Stephen Ross totaled 10 points and four rebounds.
WHS had nine points each from Ryan Roberts and Charley Skinner, and Michael Crowe and Zach Rand both totaled eight points. Also for the Wildcats, Clay Risner totaled four points, Logan Cummings tallied two points, Jacob Campbell netted one point and Josh Hughes scored a point.
In all, WHS was 12-of-21 from the free-throw line, as they also totaled five 3-pointers (Yeager with three, Hamilton with two) and 30 rebounds.