by Scott Sacry
The Class B Florence Carlton Falcons and the Class A Hamilton Broncs boys’ basketball teams met in Hamilton last Saturday and put on a great show for the local fans. The teams were evenly matched and it was a back and forth game throughout, but in the end Hamilton pulled out a narrow victory of 65-64. The outcome of the game wasn’t settled until the final buzzer sounded.
With 28 seconds left in the game, Hamilton had the ball and trailed, 63-64. Eli Taylor drove to the basket and his shot rolled off the rim and an opportunistic Tyson Rostad caught the rebound in the air and put it back in to give the Broncos a 65-64 lead with 13 seconds remaining. After a timeout, Florence’s Blake Shoupe took the ball down the court, got a screen at the top of the key and bounded toward the basket. He passed to a streaking Jace Pederson whose layup was just a bit too strong and rolled off the rim. Hamilton got possession and Florence fouled Hamilton’s Eli Taylor. Taylor missed the front end of the one and one and Florence grabbed the rebound and called timeout with 0.7 seconds left. Florence had to go the length of the floor and had just enough time for a catch and shoot. On the ensuing inbound pass, Florence’s Patrick Duchien heaved a full court pass to Shoupe who leapt up and caught the ball with his back to the basket. With no time to turn and shoot, Shoupe threw up a backward shot that missed the mark. Hamilton had survived and won, 65-64.
Florence led 18-17 after an entertaining first quarter, but Hamilton had a strong second quarter to take a 40-32 halftime lead. Florence came out of halftime with a 7-0 run to bridge the gap, and at the start of the fourth quarter Hamilton had a slight lead, 51-48. Down the stretch Hamilton’s Asher Magness and Florence’s Beau Neal traded big shots. Neal led the Falcons with 22 points and Levi Posey added 12, and the Falcons got solid play from Blake Shoupe, Patrick Duchien, Jace Pederson, and Caden Zaluski. Hamilton got strong contributions from starters Tyson Rostad, Eli Taylor, Asher Magness, Max Cianflone, and Liam O’Connell, and Cole Dickemore came off the bench and hit some big three-point shots.