CCHS travels to face Hamilton Christian today

Central Catholic will hit the road tonight attempting to stop an offensive juggernaut on the court in Hamilton Christian Academy.
Not only is the Lake Charles-based school, the No. 7 seed in the Class 1A playoffs capable of scoring lots of points, they also are perfect in the new year.
Hamilton Christian, who enters tonight’s game 22-8, last lost on Dec. 27 in the Northwest tournament to Class 2A power Lakeview, 66-62.
Since then, Hamilton Christian has reeled off 15 straight wins.
That Lakeview team that beat Hamilton Christian is the No. 2 seed in the Class 2A playoffs.
Additionally, Hamilton Christian can score. They have scored 80 or more points eight times this season and 90 or more points three times.
In their first-round playoff win against No. 26 Montgomery, Hamilton Christian rolled to a 98-61 victory.
“They want to get up and down (the court),” Central Catholic coach Ree Case said. “If you look at their scores, they score lots of points. They like to get out and push in transition. A key defensively besides rebounding is we’re going to have to get back in transition. For us, we need to make it a half-court (game), and they want to make it a full-court, up and down full court game. … It’s going to depend on who can play their style.”
Case noted that a lot of the Warriors’ points come via offensive rebounds and second-chance points.
The Eagles (15-13) will have to contend with Brandon Blackwell inside, who Case said is a good rebounder.
“He’s about 6-5,” Case said. “He is a McNeese signee in football. So he (looks) like a football player but he’s actually not a bad basketball player, either.”
While Case said, ideally, he would like to keep opponents under 60 points, he said it’s more tempo and how team’s score that is important.
However, he said that his team cannot win a shootout against Hamilton Christian.
“Put it this way. The higher the score gets, the more it is in their favor,” Case said. “A lot of teams they played this year, they just simply outscored them.”
Case said Hamilton Christian’s best player is Justin Bartie, a guard who is between 6-feet, 2-inches and 6-feet, 3-inches.
Another top player for Hamilton Christian is point guard Kennan Fontenot.
On defense, Case said the Warriors play a lot of man-to-man and some 3-2 zone. He said they like to pressure.
“We’re going to have to make open shots,” Case said. “I think we can get shots. We just got to make them.”
Central Catholic enters its regional round game after knocking off traditional Class 1A power Christian Life in the first round. While the game pitted the Eagles against a No. 23 seed, Case had said Christian Life was not a traditional No. 23 seed, and the game wouldn’t be played out like one.
He agreed that avoiding an upset in the first round and securing a win against the traditional powerhouse Crusaders gave his squad confidence.
“I think for sure our first round playoff game definitely prepared us for tonight,” Case said. “Just the intensity, as well as they defended. They made open shots. I think it’ll help us more tonight, our first-round opponent, than Hamilton Christian’s first-round opponent.”
Tonight’s game will begin at 6:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on KBZE 105.9 FM.