Hamilton Christian eliminated CCHS 61-47

Central Catholic basketball coach Ree Case said his team played with the energy needed for Tuesday’s Class 1A regional round contest at No. 7 Hamilton Christian.
However, he said the homestanding Warriors just made a few more shots in eliminating the No. 10 Eagles, 61-47.
Case pointed to specifically the fourth quarter, when the Warriors (23-8) outscored the Eagles 19-12, as the Eagles’ downfall.
However, the Eagles, who Case said ideally would like to keep opponents under 60 points, nearly did that on defense.
“I thought we defended them really well,” Case said. “We talked about the whole time it needs to be a game in the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter (Justin Bartie) hits two threes but they’re 25- footers. I thought they were bad shots. They just went in, and (Chris Elly) for them, who hadn’t made a shot the whole game, hits two threes in the fourth. Again, contested shots. Really, if those guys don’t hit threes, they don’t even score 60. I’m not saying we would have won, but they hit some shots, some tough (shots) in
the fourth quarter, so I thought we defended them really well. And if you look at the line score, really, the fourth quarter (we were)
outscored 19-12 and that’s really the difference in the game. Every other quarter was pretty even.”
Bartie led Hamilton Christian with 23 points, including five 3-pointers. As a team, Hamilton Christian drained 11 3-pointers in the win.
Big man Brandon Blackwell also reached double figures in the win with 10 points.
Hamilton Christian took a 19-13 lead after the first quarter and went into halftime ahead 30-24.
“They came out in the first quarter, hit three threes early,” Case said of Hamilton Christian. “I thought we weathered their run, made a couple shots. In the second quarter, we played even. We were down six at half and held them to 30 points in the first half, which is where we wanted to be.”
Early in the third quarter, Central Catholic went on a 5-0 run to cut its deficit to one and then Central Catholic’s Stefano Guarisco got a steal and went down the court. However, Central Catholic got a no-call on the Eagles’ offensive possession for what Case was
a goal tend that would have given his team the lead.
Then, on the next possession Central Catholic recorded a steal but couldn't convert a contested layup Case said he thought his team could have made.
“I thought (that) was big because I think if we would have went up three in the third quarter, I really think we would have won the game,” Case said.
Jalen Johnson led the Eagles with 18 points, while Samarick Paul and Guarisco also reached double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Central Catholic, which finished its season 15-13, loses just one senior, Matt Vorenkamp.
Case lauded Vorenkamp’s leadership as team captain.
“He was a captain on a very young team,” Case said. “I thought he did a really good job. Even for a guy that didn’t always start, I thought he did a really good job of being a really good leader for us.”
Even with such a young team this year, Case said his team didn’t play as if there was always next year to build on.
“They played every game to win, and that’s a credit to them,” Case said.
Central Catholic will return the remainder of its team next year and Case said the goal is to be a year better, rather
than a year older.
Case noted that this year was the team’s 20th straight year making the playoffs.
Hamilton Christian, which has now won 16 straight games, will advance to play the winner of either No. 2 Arcadia
or No. 15 West St. John in the Class 1A quarterfinals. That game is set to be played today.