Hamilton avenges loss to Holland Christian in rivalry filled with 'drama'
HOLLAND - The Hamilton boys basketball team didn't play very well in last month's 12-point loss to Holland Christian on the Hawkeyes' home court.
They weren't about to let that happen again, as Hamilton outscored Holland Christian 22-7 in the fourth quarter to pull away for a 66-43 win on Tuesday night at the Civic Center.
"We didn't beat HC last year, and it's just been some sort of mental block where we just can't seem to get past them," said Hamilton junior forward Justin McIllwain. "We're just here to overcome that and there's been a lot of drama between the two teams. There's a lot of returners on our team and we definitely remember them storming the court (after Holland Christian's win over Hamilton in the district finals last season), so that's why we were out there storming the court just now.
"This game meant a lot to us and we just wanted it more."
Hamilton (14-2, 8-1 OK Blue) fell behind 12-8 after the opening quarter, but McIllwain scored six of his game-high 18 points in the second quarter as the Hawkeyes outscored Holland Christian (4-12, 2-7) 16-4 to move out to a 24-16 halftime lead.
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It was an offensive explosion in the third quarter, as both teams scored 20 points to keep Hamilton in front by eight at 44-36 entering the final quarter.
Harrison Halbert hit a 15-footer to move the Maroons within six (44-38) 10 seconds into the fourth quarter and his free throw with 6:20 left in the game pulled Holland Christian within nine at 48-39.
But Hamilton proceeded to put the game out of reach over the next 2 minutes and 40 seconds, as Brant Goodpaster made a driving layup, JD DeGroot grabbed a rebound and went the length of the floor for a score, McIllwain drained a 3 from the wing and hit a contested layup, and Goodpaster buried a 3 from the wing off a DeGroot assist to complete a 12-0 run that made it 60-39 with 3:40 to go.
"In the first quarter, you just gotta get your legs under you," said Hamilton coach Nick Kronemeyer. "There's a lot of energy when we play these guys and we haven't always played our best against them. I'm super proud of our guys in the second quarter just digging in and doing what they do. They got stops, which led to some transition points. It was a great effort."
Holland Christian coach Brad Jansen was impressed with the cohesive play exhibited by the Hawkeyes.
"They're tough," Jansen said of Hamilton. "They are playing together and they're playing unselfish. Nick's doing a great job with them and even if you take away one guy, there's always another one that is gonna get you. You can go down their scouting report and they have (a number) of guys that can score 12-15 points. Our guys played hard, but we just couldn't get stops when we needed them. It's a frustrating night because you feel like you're in the game and then all of a sudden, you're down by 20."
In the midst of a nine-game winning streak, Kronemeyer acknowledged that he has a special group of players this season.
"How we're playing this year, sharing the ball and focusing on the 95 percent of the game without the basketball is because of a lot of pain," he said. "We went through a lot of stuff with this team and we have (most of) the team back from last year. We've learned what it takes (to succeed) and they want to win. They've been incredible teammates, they've been incredible to each other, and that's to our competitive advantage. We really take that to heart and that's a hard thing to do with (managing) egos in high school basketball. We have some guys who can make shots and we play for each other."
Goodpaster scored eight of his 13 points in the fourth quarter to complement McIllwain's 18. Thano Klett added 12 and DeGroot chipped in nine points, five rebounds, and three steals for Hamilton. James Hoffman grabbed seven rebounds and Austin Osborne had four assists for the Hawkeyes.
Halbert and Luke Michmerhuizen both scored nine points to pace Holland Christian. Michael Haig had six points and dished out six assists for the Maroons.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Hamilton avenges loss to Holland Christian in rivalry filled with 'drama'
