Kats shock Trojans in ‘statement game’

By CHRIS GARNER
Tribune sportswriter

January 12, 2008 12:37 am

— Kokomo’s stunning 52-42 victory Friday over New Castle at Memorial Gymnasium will officially go down in the books as the Wildkats’ sixth of the season against four losses, their first in the North Central Conference in three tries and their 11th overall in coach Brian McCauley’s two-year tenure.
Make no mistake, though, this was special for Kokomo.
The Trojans, now 9-2, are defending NCC champions and only two years removed from a state championship in Class 3A. They had beaten the Kats six straight times.
McCauley called this game the kind of statement he’s been looking for out of his team.
“A statement that Kokomo basketball wants to do things in the right way, on the floor and off the floor,” is exactly how McCauley described his sentiments. “We’ve come a long way. We’ve got a good core group of guys and they really came out and were focused. They had an edge about them and I was extremely pleased with the effort they put forth.”
New Castle came into Friday’s contest leading the league in points allowed per game (44.0) and winning margin (17.8). Kokomo held the Trojans below their averages for 3-point field goals (9.0) and attempts (24.6) on 8 of 21 shooting from the arc and well below their average of 13.5 assists per game with just six.
The Kats outrebounded New Castle 32-28, allowing the Trojans only eight offensive boards and three second-chance points. Kokomo committed a mere five turnovers.
“New Castle is an outstanding program and we beat a very good team,” said McCauley. “It was a lot of fun and very satisfying for our team.”
The Wildkats asserted themselves by scoring the final seven points of the first half to grab a 20-19 lead and held that intensity for full 16 minutes in the second half.
Both teams held each other at an arm’s distance in the third quarter, exchanging jabs until New Castle’s Butler University-bound Chase Stigall was forced to the bench with four fouls at the 3:51 mark.
Kokomo took a 30-28 lead on two charity tosses by Tyrone Brown as a result of Stigall’s foul and increased it to 36-32 at the break on back-to-back treys by Colton Summers.
Brown finished with 10 points and two steals.
Stigall, who had 17 of his game-high 25 points through three quarters, returned in the fourth to nail his fifth 3-pointer of the night to draw the Trojans within range at 38-35, but the Kats scored six of the next seven points to give themselves a 44-36 lead with 2:23 left.
New Castle got as close as three points at 45-42 and had a chance to tie the game on Daniel Froedge’s 3-point attempt that misfired, Kokomo snared the rebound and cruised home on 5 of 6 free-throw shooting.
Six-foot-6 junior Patrick Hopkins scored only two points in the second half — part of his team-high 12, along with Summers’ 12 — but he was nevertheless irrepressible.
Hopkins had 10 defensive rebounds in the final 16 minutes, seven alone in the fourth quarter. New Castle missed only 16 shots in the second half. He added three blocked shots in the final period while guarding Stigall and had one assist.
“Right now, New Castle is a pretty big win for us,” Hopkins said. “We play as a team. Colton got hot so we had to get him the ball and I wasn’t trying to force anything. It was a team effort.”
For the game Hopkins snared a career-high 15 boards and had four blocked shots and three assists.
“There’s so much more to the game of basketball than scoring,” McCauley said in reference to Hopkins’ contributions. “Scoring’s huge, but Patrick really did so many things that made his teammates around him better and made his team better. That’s the mark of a good player. Every rebound we needed it seemed like he got.”
Stigall did little to tarnish his star. The Indiana All-Star candidate made 5 of 9 3-point attempts, some of them from nearly impossible angles, but he was only 9 of 22 from the floor.
He got little help from his teammates, though, who among them put only three others in the scoring column. Froedge was the next-closest thing to a threat with seven points. Kokomo’s bench outscored New Castle’s 8-0.
“You’ve got to give [the Wildkats] credit; they played well,” said Trojans coach Steve Bennett. “They’re quicker and more athletic than us. We have to make shots and we didn’t. ... They played hard and they played strong.
“Our skill has to win out and we didn’t do that [Friday] night.”

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