Third time's not a charm

In a season in which the East Nicolaus High girls basketball team has bulldozed nearly everything in its path, Hamilton City remains the stubborn brick wall that refuses to crumble.

A 17-point first half from Kylie Watson and 13 total points from Heilani Tupou were not enough as the Spartans fell 59-50 to the Braves at home in a physical contest that featured plenty of bumping and banging to go along with baskets.

The defeat marked the third time this season the Braves (24-3, 9-0) have emerged on top and handed the Spartans (17-8, 7-2) their first home loss of the season.

More importantly, the victory gave Hamilton City the outright Mid-Valley League title — an honor it would have been forced to share with East Nicolaus had the Spartans halted their skid against the longtime Division V powerhouse.

But the league crown hardly came easy.

"We came into this game knowing that we were going to have earn a league title," Hamilton coach Sharon Story said. "They were not going to hand it to us; we had to earn it over 32 minutes."

Unlike the last time these two teams faced off, this one was close from the beginning. On Jan 29, the Braves opened the game with a 17-0 run and never looked back in 63-54 win, erasing strong nights from Tupou (20 points) and Watson (14 points). In that game, the Spartans avoided a rout with a strong fourth quarter, but in this contest, East Nicolaus didn't wait 24 minutes to heat up.

Watson hit the first basket of the game with a 3-pointer to start what would be a 16 minute shoot-a-thon for the senior. She jacked the ball up 19 times, connecting on six shots with three more coming from beyond the arc with five seconds left in the half to give the Spartans a 27-26 lead.

Her points compounded the Spartans' efforts on defense as a full court press and willingness to play tough inside the key kept the Braves in check to the tune of a 11-32 (34 percent) clip from the field.

"It seemed like they had more fire in them this time that last time," Story said.

But in the second half, Watson's open looks at the basket evaporated. A 3-pointer with 3:50 to play in the game would be her only other basket as she finished with 20 points.

With Watson not getting good looks, the burden to score fell on Tupou, who responded with 11 second-half points and a slew of rebounds and nice dishes to teammates to add some normalcy to an offense that at times looked haphazard.

"Its not in this team's makeup to run that real smooth half-court offense," East Nicolaus coach Bob Wolcott said. "So we have to go off the pace."

While somewhat stymied, the Spartans' offensive attack was still effective enough with Kristyn Hanson adding 11 points.

Where they faltered was on defense as the Braves took advantage of wide open shots and an ability to get to the line to finally bury the Spartans. Aubrey Bekendam led the Braves with 18 points, eight of which came from second-half free throws.

For Wolcott, it came down to the subtleties. "We didn't do some of the little things, like ball-faking and reading (Hamilton's) eyes on defense," he said. "They just did those things better than we did."

But as Story will attest, even with the Spartans little miscues, the still gave their rival quite a hearty challenge.

"It was important to keep our composure, we had to be mentally stronger," she said. "This is a tough place to play."

East Nicolaus won the JV game 37-24 behind Mikayla Rolufs' 14 points and four steals. Katie Michel added seven points and Riley Wood put up six for the Spartans (16-8, 7-2).

Hamilton 59, E. Nicolaus 50