“It’s the first thing I talked about, and I said, ‘Trey, I don’t tell you enough how much I appreciate you and what you do, but hopefully your teammates understand how you’re guarded — how that helps all of you,’” Thunderhawks coach Clint Adkins said.
“For Trey, it would be very easy to get frustrated — take a lot of bad shots. In the second half, he did a good job of becoming a back screener, and when he was back screening for his teammates, he was getting guys wide open.”
Brady Bowman reaped the benefits by scoring a game-high 15 points to help lead Lakota East past Hamilton 59-48 on Friday night at the Hamilton Athletic Center.
Perry, a Miami University signee who averages 23.8 points a game, was held to nine on Friday. PJ MacFarlane had eight points and Michael Akindale added seven for the Thunderhawks, who shot 19 of 26 (73%) from the floor.
“We’ve got good offensive players, that’s for sure,” Adkins said. “We spread it out really evenly tonight.”
Lakota East avenged last year’s postseason loss to Hamilton. The Thunderhawks are 6-0 overall — 5-0 in the Greater Miami Conference — and off to their best start since beginning the 2019-2020 season at 7-0. That was the same year Lakota East took a 25-2 record into its Division I regional final against Moeller but never played it because of COVID.
“Tonight was like we expected,” said Perry, who scored 15 in Lakota East’s 56-55 win over Princeton earlier in the week. “A lot of teams saw how Princeton guarded us. A lot of teams saw how Princeton laid the format for how the rest of the teams are going to — and most likely should — guard us.
“At the end of the day, our team is disciplined. We watch our film. We take practice seriously, and we execute the little things. The little things is what wins us games. That’s what happened here tonight.”
Lakota East led 13-9 after the first quarter and went on a 7-0 run to take a 20-9 lead in the second. But Hamilton finished the first half on a 9-0 run to cut its deficit to 20-18 at the break.
“Going into the game if you told me Trey’s only going to have nine, I would have lived with that,” Big Blue coach Jake Turner said. “I thought we would have a really good chance. Their role guys stepped up and made some shots. Some of it was breakdown from us, but I mean, you shot 73%. You’re going to win the game when you shoot 73%.
“Obviously, the gameplan was to stop Trey, and we did that part, and their role guys stepped up and made shots, made plays.”
Peyton Davis led Hamilton with 12 points, while Jordon Johnson-Perdomo (nine), Marlon Reed (eight) and Kaiden Jones (eight) also contributed offensively.
Defensively, it was Big Blue junior RJ Wilson who kept Perry at a season low in points.
“I thought our guys executed the gameplan,” Turner said. “That was our plan — to come out and make it tough for him. I thought we rotated some guys who did a great job.”
A freshman force
As a freshman, Bowman has quickly adapted to understanding his role as a ballhandler. Perry did most of the point guard work in the past, but Bowman has stepped in to free Perry up.
“I just wanted to come out and do everything for the team,” said Bowman, who has 25 assists to his three turnovers this season. “I just try and get stops and make the right play. Trey was getting doubled most of the game, so it was just stepping up and making shots for the team, getting good rebounds.
“It’s nice to have the trust from Coach Adkins,” Bowman added. “Trey has let me take it up. It’s nice to have that. I just try and step it up.
“It’s great having a role like this. I don’t even think about it that much. I kind of try to treat it like I’m a senior.”
No time to panic
Hamilton slipped to 1-6 (1-4 GMC) which is the worst start to a season since the Big Blue were forced to forfeit their games the first half of 2020-2021.
But Turner said there’s no reason to hit the panic button.
“I told them in a locker room, we’ve got to stay together,” said Turner, who is in his first season at the Hamilton helm. “You’re going to hear outside noise. You’re to have this and this. People are going to blame me, that’s fine. I’m not worried about that.
“I haven’t lost any belief, confidence in our guys. I told them in the locker room, we’re going to figure this out. We’re close. We’re close. I know we keep saying that, but we’ve still got a lot of basketball left to play. Each and every day, focus on our mistakes, try to get better at those the next day.”
Up next
Lakota East travels to Winton Woods on Monday, while Hamilton plays Badin in the Butler County Bash at Fairfield Arena next Friday.
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