WAVERLY - A day after he surpassed the 1,000-point mark for his career, Luke Gillingham clearly played like he had some weights taken off his shoulders.
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The sharp shooter put on an encore performance from Wednesday by going off for 25 points and drained a season high five three-pointers in the process.
The Carrollton Hawks as a whole played well and led the entire way as they defeated the Auburn Trojans 64-54 in the Waverly Tournament to improve their record to 7-2.
“The effort’s been there the entire tournament, but boy it makes the game easier when you come out and hit some shots,” Carrollton head coach Jeff Krumwiede said.
“When Luke’s on we’re a different team. We’re much smoother offensively and that takes a load off our defensive efforts and our execution.”
The Hawks were fortunate in the first half that Gillingham got several open enough looks as he did, but then again they haven’t faced Auburn in over three seasons.
“He got some open looks we’d be surprised that he got early in the game,” Krumwiede said.
“That’s probably one of the fortunate things about playing an opponent that doesn’t know everything about you when you come to a place like Waverly.”
Cole Brannan followed up Gillingham with 11 points and Jerrett Smith added 10.
“Everybody did a nice job,” Krumwiede said. “It was a total team effort and we’re very satisfied with the way things worked out.”
Connor Berola led the Trojans (5-6) with 18 points and scored the all but two of them in the second half.
Aubrey Beard added 10 points, while Nate Brauer and Ben Johnson finished with nine apiece.
There were showers in the first quarter as Gillingham rained in four triples to lead the Hawks out to a 19-13 lead.
Johnson was right behind him as he nailed two treys, but he cooled off completely as he was held scoreless the remainder of the game.
The Hawks jumped ahead of the Trojans early on in the second quarter as they went on a 14-4 run with Tyler Frye and Chase McAdams putting in good shifts off the bench.
Though, so did Beard for Auburn as he chipped in six points Berola hit a shot at the buzzer to give the Trojans some kind momentum going into halftime.
Auburn made serious halftime adjustments, primarily on Gillingham.
Drew Points was a First Team All-State wide receiver as well as an All-Conference cornerback in football who led Auburn to their first ever state championship appearance this fall.
The quickster was tasked to face-guard Gillingham in the second half as the Trojans went into a box-and-one to slow down the Hawks and Gillingham.
As a result Points held Gillingham to no field goal attempts for the entire second half, but did eventually foul out.
Jeremy Watson picked up the baton for the Hawks and scored seven points in the quarter.
“When they went box-in-one I told him you’re going to have a lot of openings,” Krumwiede said. “
However Auburn’s offense picked up and was led by Berola’s inside presence.
“Berola had a great game and I’m really proud for Connor and the fact that he stepped up and had a big game,” Krumwiede said. “I coached his uncle and knew his grandma very well. I told him it couldn’t of worked out better, we got the win, but [he] had a great game.”
Beard and Berola hurt Carrollton inside with their size, which got Auburn back into the game in the fourth quarter.
Brauer and Berola led the Trojan attack in the fourth quarter by cutting the lead to as close as five points, but Brannan, Gillingham, Smith, and Brody Howard all stepped up at the free throw line to weather the storm and ice the game away.
Howard especially came up big with an and-one to give the Hawks an eight-point lead late in the game, as did Brannan.
Carrollton made 24 out of 31 free throws and 64 out of 86 for the tournament, which comes out to 74 percent.
As a result the Hawks took home the Jerry Symons award for the best free-throw percentage.
On Monday Jan. 4, Carrollton will finally be at home for the first time this season as they take on the Griggsville-Perry Tornadoes.
