Colerain tops Hamilton

Al Gabriel
WeAreColerain.com

The Colerain Boys basketball team fell behind 19-8 at the end of the first quarter but relied on a stingy defense and patient offense to come from behind to up-end the Hamilton Big Blue 55-47 Tuesday night.

Earlier in the game Colerain seemed troubled by Hamilton’s 2-3 Zone defense but started finding seams during a second quarter run that saw the Cardinals draw the game even at the half. “The key for us was that we began to move the ball quicker and that caused the zone to spread out…our guys began to see the openings in the zone and we looked to get the ball inside” said coach, Kevin Higgins. With the guards looking inside (12 combined assists from Jovante Harrison, Ryan Foster and Ken Kunkel) Junior Forward Ben Vonderharr took advantage of his teammates ball movement to score a game high 19 points. Vonderharr also added 12 rebounds and 5 blocked shots in 28 minutes of actions. “Ben played his best game last night. He has the potential to be a very good post player and can really affect a game on both ends of the floor…I think you will see more games like that in the future” Higgins added.

In spite of Vonderharr’s solid game, the score was still tied entering the 4th quarter. Colerain opened the period on a 13-3 run that put them comfortably ahead and the Cardinals sealed the deal from the free throw line. The Big Blue were paced Jake Turner and Drew Townsend (12 and 13 points respectively) on a combined 6 of 13 from the 3 point line.

Colerain improves to 6-2 (2-2 GMC) and plays at Lakota East on Friday night.
Hamilton falls to 2-5 (2-2 GMC).