BOYS BB: Kats hammer Kings for 7th straight win
Jan. 29—Kokomo's boys basketball team rolled past Lewis Cass 57-32 Saturday night in front of the largest crowd of the season at Memorial Gym to continue its perfect month.
The Class 4A No. 7-ranked Wildkats (14-4) have won seven in a row in the new year.
"We just keep getting better," Kokomo coach John Peckinpaugh said, "but we can't get complacent, we have to find ways to improve every day and that includes game days. I felt like Friday night, we wasted a chance to get better at Jeff."
Kokomo squeezed by Lafayette Jeff 49-43 Friday night at the Crawley Center.
"After our walkthrough [Saturday], we talked to our guys a little bit about what teams that make postseason runs do — they use every opportunity to improve. I thought our guys responded well," Peckinpaugh added.
Kokomo took control against Class 2A co-No. 15 Cass with a dominant first quarter. The Kats made 8 of 13 shots — and grabbed offensive rebounds on all of their misses — in building a 21-7 lead. All five Kat starters scored in the quarter. Shayne Spear hit two 3-pointers and Zavion Bellamy and Patrick Hardimon hit one triple each as the Kats made the Kings pay for their collapsing defense on all-state center Flory Bidunga.
The Kats outscored the Kings 13-4 in the second quarter for a commanding 34-11 halftime lead. Hardimon led the charge in the second quarter by scoring seven points.
The Kats shot 13 of 23 from the field in the half.
"We were sharing the ball and getting really, really good looks and we were defending at a high level. We held them to [11] points in the first half, which is really good," Peckinpaugh said. "We cooled off a little bit offensively in the second half, but we still defended at a high level which is why we never let them get back into the game."
The Kats went on to lead 47-22 after the third quarter.
Bidunga led the Kats with 18 points, reaching and surpassing 800 career points. The 6-foot-10 junior also had 12 rebounds and eight blocked shots. It marked his 40th double-double in 45 career games. He was 7 of 8 from the field with five dunks.
Hardimon scored 14 points and Spear had a nice line of 10 points, nine rebounds and three assists. Bellamy had four points, six assists and two steals.
Tyson Good led the Kings (10-6) with nine points, Luke Chambers had eight points and L.J. Hillis had seven points and six rebounds.
It was a tough matchup for Cass, which lacks consistent 3-point shooting. Cass relies more on post play and attacking the basket — but that style goes right into the teeth of Kokomo's defense. The Kings finished 13 of 42 (31%) from the field.
"I thought we did a pretty good job," Cass coach Kyle Johnson said. "You can only do so much against Flory. It's hard to say, because he ended up with 18 points, but I thought we did pretty good on him. We were still aggressive. We were able to get inside and get some buckets. Truth be told, we got beat by a better team. You run into those. It's great competition for us moving forward."
Kokomo improved to 9-0 all-time against Cass in a series that started in the 2014-15 season. Still, Johnson appreciated the chance to play at Memorial Gym, and in front of the big crowd.
"How about this atmosphere? Who doesn't want to come into Memorial Gym and try to get a victory?" he said. "I'm proud of the kids. They fought. It doesn't look good on the scoreboard and it's disappointing, but I was pleased with our effort."
Kokomo visits Arsenal Tech on Thursday for a North Central Conference game. Kokomo is 6-0 in the NCC and Anderson is right on its heels at 5-0.
"I haven't watched a ton of film on [Tech] yet, but we'll start getting ready for them on Tuesday and really dive into them Wednesday. We'll get some self-work in on Monday. It'll be a short week, but we'll try our best to get prepared," Peckinpaugh said.
Bryan Gaskins is the Tribune's sports editor. He may be reached at bryan.gaskins@kokomotribune.com or 765-454-8567.
