Kastro Montina (3) tries keeping the ball away from Kyle Harrington (3). Photo by Wes Kirkpatrick.
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Jan. 27: To go on a winning streak, sometimes you have to win without your best stuff.
That’s exactly what the Nottingham High boys’ basketball team is doing, as it kept alive its longest string in at least a decade by defeating pesky Hamilton, 71-50, Thursday night in the Galaxy.
Cliff Joseph takes off for the layup. Photo by Wes Kirkpatrick.
Undermanned West deserves credit for playing tough and mounting a challenge, but Nottingham pulled away over the final 10 minutes to win its sixth straight. That is the Northstars’ longest win streak in the five-year coaching era of Chris “The Baron” Raba, and at least the longest since 2008-09.
And according to forward Darell Johnson, Nottingham (12-3) did not even play well.
“Our shooters weren’t making all their shots,” said Johnson, who had 17 points and 10 rebounds. “We weren’t finishing all our lay-ups, we weren’t making all our free throws.”
And yet, they won by 21.
“This is good for us,” Johnson said. “It shows that on bad days, we still can win.”
Johnson scored 10 points in the first quarter as Nottingham roared to a 17-5 lead in front of a frenzied, vociferous crowd. Despite playing without talented forward Dane Riley and having leading scorer Mark Bethea and Christian Charles in foul trouble, the Hornets clawed their way back and trailed 29-25 at halftime and 40-36 with under three minutes remaining.
Darry Felix (10) goes up for a short jumper against Michael Then. Photo by Wes Kirkpatrick
The Stars finally clamped down on a wearying West squad and used a 16-1 run over the third and fourth quarters to open a 56-39 lead and put it away.
“At halftime we talked about we needed more energy,” Johnson said. “We especially needed more energy on the defensive end. We just let them score too much.”
Nottingham got 15 points and eight rebounds from Cliff Joseph, 14 points from Christian Ford and nine from Richie Jones, who had a rare off-night shooting 3-pointers. Nottingham dominated the boards, 37-21, as nine different guys grabbed caroms.
Hamilton got 13 points each from Bethea and Paul and 11 from Kyle Harrington. But the Hornets killed themselves by shooting a woeful 11-for-32 from the foul line. Quick math indicates the 21 misses were the difference in the game.
“We missed a ton of free throws,” coach Jay “D-2” Malloy said. “But I’m proud of these guys. Throughout the first half we stayed composed, we executed, we defended, we rebounded. We just basically ran out of gas. I had seven guys in the rotation and that’s it.”
Riley suffered a concussion after getting hit on the head last week at Notre Dame.
“He’s going through all the concussion protocols and doctors notes,” Malloy said. “He should be back by Tuesday, and I have a couple guys getting eligible February 1.”
Despite the personnel issues, Hamilton has begun to play better over the past few weeks. After losing their first eight, the Hornets won four of six entering the Nottingham game.
“As a whole, yes, they’re improving,” Malloy said. “There are still moments in games where we do things I don’t think we should be doing. But it happens. Like PDS on Monday, they’re a very good team, but we shouldn’t have lost by 20. We didn’t come ready to play.
“But as a group, the fact they won a couple games they’re starting to have more confidence in themselves and starting to believe in each other. So hopefully that carries through.”
