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CARROLLTON - The Pleasant Hill Wolves haven’t made anything all so pleasant for the Carrollton Hawks thus far this season.
The Wolves upset the Hawks 53-43 in the first round of the Winchester Invitational Tournament exactly two weeks ago and things were shaping up to produce another one in the first half. This time, though, Carrollton prevailed 57-46 in a tough battle.
“We’ve just struggled to score so much,” Carrollton head coach Jeff Krumwiede said. “I was looking in Pleasant Hills players’ eyes and they were like yeah we’re going to do it again, there was confidence there.”
That was when the Hawks were down 17-10 in the second quarter when everything seemed like it was going wrong from a Carrollton perspective.
However the they grinded through to lead 25-23 at halftime and had a huge third quarter to speed away as Carrollton was victorious over Pleasant Hill 57-46.
“If you execute and get the ball in tight those high percentage shots can win you games,” Krumwiede said. “We ran our offense, got easy looks, and that was the difference in the ball game.”
Jeremy Watson led all scorers with 17 points and scored nine of them in the third quarter.
Luke Gillingham tallied 13 and Cole Brannan added 12 for the game.
“It feels pretty good to get a win after losing in the Winchester Tournament to these guys and it feels nice getting 17 points against them too,” Watson said.
Russell Miller led the Wolves with 15 points as Corby Edwards and Kaleb Root followed up with 11 and 10 points respectively.
The Hawks had positive things to say about the Wolves.
“They’re one of the best Pleasant Hill teams I’ve ever seen and they got a lot of talent,” Watson said.
“They’re so athletic and quick and they mirror us in a lot of ways,” Krumwiede said.
The Hawks trailed Pleasant Hill 14-10 after the first quarter, but went on a 15-6 run fueled by two triples from Gillingham and an additional one from Watson that gave them a 25-23 lead at halftime.
Carrollton came out smoking hot in the second half as they focused on running set plays and took less outside shots.
In the Hawks shot not three pointers for the entire second half and the result was a 21-8 third quarter run.
“I said starting here in the third we are not going to shoot any threes,” Krumwiede said. “Our field goal percentage went up, which has been a problem for us.”
Brannan, Jerrett Smith, Brody Howard, and particularly Watson attacked the basket, which proved successful.
On defense Carrollton got some forced and several unforced turnovers on the Wolves.
Carrollton’s biggest lead of the game was 15 as they led 46-31 heading into the fourth quarter.
Early in the fourth the Hawks had a couple of offensive lapses with turnovers, which the Wolves took advantage of and cut the lead down to 11, however Carrollton barley gave them a chance soon after with their excellent ball control.
“We ran off, on a couple possessions more than a minute off the clock without turning the ball over and that was big,” Krumwiede said.
With the win Carrollton goes to 15-3, a solid record, but hardly any recognition for it with no mention in the state polls, but Krumwiede is just fine with that as his team prepares for the Beardstown Tournament this up coming week.
“We feel pretty good being 15-3 and all these home games are pretty nice,” Watson said.
“We don’t deserve recognition in the state polls and we’re not looking for it,” Krumwiede said. “We just want to do well at Beardstown next week.”
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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