The champs haven’t been knocked out yet.
The Elton Indians edged Hamilton Christian 37-33 Tuesday night to move within a game of the Warriors, who suffered their first
District 4-3A loss. Elton has won the district the past two seasons.
Micah Lavan drained a 3-pointer with
1:05 left to put Elton (15-8, 5-2) ahead for good. Hamilton (12-14, 6-1)
pulled within
one on a Jalen Doucet free throw with 15 seconds left, but Elton
guard Dane Williams converted a three-point play with 7 seconds
left to put the game away for Elton.
“We were really getting after it
man-to-man,” said Elton head coach Justin Fruge. “The last couple of
weeks we have had a
big change in the attitude of the team. I guess we thought it
would be easy to win district for the third time in a row. Now
we are in a dogfight. We have to compete with everything we have,
and I am proud of my guys for doing that tonight.”
Lavan scored five of his 14 points in
the fourth quarter, scoring on a post move with 2:10 left to give Elton a
31-28 lead.
Hamilton took the lead with four straight points by Isaiah
Wheeler, but Lavan responded with a 3-pointer from the left wing
to give the Indians the lead for good.
“He is the man for us, no doubt about it,” Fruge said. “He is the leader for us in all aspects. He is always giving everything in practice; I am happy for him to have
this chance to continue our success.”
Wheeler led Hamilton with 15 points and 19 rebounds.
“He is a (heck) of a player,” Fruge said. “You can’t stop him. We just tried to hold him to the least we could. He is so good
that he is going to get his.”
Warriors head coach Dexter Washington said his team had an off-night shooting.
“The shots we normally hit, we didn’t
make,” he said. “We have been bad at the free-throw line all night. I
said that would
get us in a close game. We didn’t get the hustle rebounds we
normally get, they got a lot of second-chance points. You have
to give it to Micah Lavan, he hit the big shot. Big-time players
make big-time shots.”
Hamilton led throughout the first half, taking an 18-9 lead midway through the second before Elton scored the last eight points
of the first half, including six straight by Lavan, to pull within one at halftime.
Jaslyn Jones scored a game-high 20 points as Elton cruised to the win.
The Indians (10-14, 4-3) scored nine straight points midway through the second quarter to take a 15-6 lead, then blew the
game open with an 11-2 run to take a 33-14 halftime lead. Jones scored 16 points in the first half.
Nique Griffin scored 16 points to lead Hamilton (4-13, 1-6). Ashley Fusilier added 11.
Lydia Faulk and Juliet Langley scored 12 each for Elton.