LAPORTE — For about 15 seconds everything looked great for the Hammond Wildcats’ boys basketball team.
On the first possession of a Class 3A LaPorte Regional semifinal on Saturday, Hammond worked the ball around with crisp passing and crafty dribbling.
The ball ended up in Amiri Young’s hands and he hung the net on a deep 3-pointer.
Then, reality struck.
The Wildcats shot 16 of their next 52 field-goal attempts against fourth-ranked Culver Academy, which resulted in a resounding 72-48 loss on Saturday morning.
“We have to make shots,” Hammond coach Larry Moore Jr. said. “That allows us to set up our press. But all we got were one and outs.”
The stat sheet told the game’s entire story in two lines.
The Eagles (20-6) had 17 assists. The Wildcats (19-6) had just three.
Culver Academy had 37 rebounds. Hammond had 22.
The shooting percentage was another big factor, as well. While the Wildcats were shooting 32 percent from the field, the Eagles were 27 of 44 for 61 percent.
“We thrive on making shots and pushing the tempo,” Moore Jr. said. “It didn’t happen (Saturday).”
There were mismatches all over the hardwood as Culver Academy had more height and appeared to have more talent.
Down 36-22 at the half, Culver’s Deontae Craig scored 13 of his 30 points in the third quarter. As Hammond tried to apply pressure on the perimeter, the Eagles just passed the ball to the open man for a lot of easy buckets.
Craig was 14 of 18 from the field with many of his shots uncontested.
Ethan Brittain-Watts scored 15 for the victors, while Trey Galloway had 14.
“We ran into a really good team,” Moore Jr. said.
Senior Malik Miller led the ‘Cats with 18 points, but struggled from the field (6 of 16). Freshman Reggie Abram had 13 points.
“Reggie has no fear, he’s shown it all year,” Moore Jr. said. “I’m glad we’ve got him for three more years.”
Miller said he watched hours and hours of game tape of Culver Academy, trying to prep for Hammond’s first regional game since 2005. But once the game got started he realized the Eagles were better in real life then they were on film.
“I’m hurting,” Miller said. “We finally won the sectional and that feels good but, this loss still hurts. Our rebounding and our defense didn’t get the job done. We didn’t play Wildcat basketball.
“They stopped us from doing what we wanted to do.”
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