Published: January 19, 2008 11:24 pm            

BOYS BB: Tipton nips Kokomo

Over nearly a century of boys basketball, Tipton High School has enjoyed its share of regular season banner weekends — few however, have been any more significant than this one.

Friday night, the Class 2A No. 1-ranked Blue Devils won outright their first Hoosier Conference championship and Saturday night at Memorial Gymnasium, they ended a 13-game losing streak to Kokomo.

Tipton scored its final nine points from the free throw line, hitting 27 of 31 on the night, in hanging on for a 60-56 victory.

The Blue Devils led 54-52 with 90 seconds remaining. They held the ball until they were fouled with :46 and from that point, seven straight free throw hits was all they needed.

“We not only won two big games over the weekend, but we did it in hard-fought games over quality opponents,” said Tipton coach Travis Daugherty. “We won a share of the conference championship last week, but the kids had a lot of pride and they wanted that outright title [Friday night]. And then [Saturday], we [won at Memorial Gym] for the second time since 1982. It just shows the character of the kids.”

Wildkat coach Brian McCauley knew in pre-game that Tipton’s Indiana University recruit Derek Elston was going to be a major factor.

He was really much more than that.

The 6-foot-8 junior scored a career-high 32 points — hitting 13 of 15 free throws — and dominated the boards, grabbing 15. His 14 defensive grabs were instrumental in limiting the Kats to just five offensive rebounds. He scored 11 fourth quarter points, including a 10-foot shot off a spin move that broke a 50-all tied at the 2:15 mark.

“[Elston] can make a bad coach look good,” Daugherty said with a laugh. “What a lot of fans don’t notice is just how he creates and makes his teammates look better.”

McCauley applauded the opposition in painful tones.

“Elston is just a tremendous player,” McCauley marveled. “He can play the post and the perimeter and has great strength. He’s just a good athlete in a 6-8 frame.”

McCauley, who saw his Kats drop to 6-7, said the effort was there, but the execution wasn’t.

“It came down to rebounding and free throws,” he said. “Tipton is significantly better in both areas and it showed. It was just like the Carmel loss last week, when we had great effort. To beat these kinds of teams, you need effort and execution.”

In Tuesday night’s loss at Lafayette Jeff, starting point guard Alston Andrews played just five minutes after taking a gash in the head. Saturday night, he played some minutes in the first half, but didn’t return to the floor for the second half because of sickness.

The only positive from that meant more minutes for Jacob Blackamore. The 6-2 junior guard scored 16 points on 6 of 8 shooting, continually driving for tough hoops. His performance impressed Daugherty.

“We knew we needed to pressure their shooters [T.J.] Weir and [Colton] Summers and we wanted to double [Patrick] Hopkins inside when we could, but Blackamore was just huge for them. He played well and deserved everything he got.”

Unfortunately for Kokomo, Blackamore made one of the most sudden exits of all time. Official Shawn Malloy tagged him with his third, fourth and fifth fouls within 1:40 of each other. He fouled out with 4:29 remaining and Kokomo trailing 46-45.

Summers’ high-arcing 3-pointer from the baseline tied the score for the final time at 50 with 2:40 remaining, then Elston’s bucket inside put Tipton back on top. After a Kokomo miss, Matt Hodges, who scored 18 points, started the Tipton parade to the free throw line, where the Devils hit 9 of their last 10 attempts.

Tipton has the talent to go deep in the Class 2A tournament and Daugherty said a game of this magnitude — Tipton’s closest game of the season — will help.

“Kokomo is the most athletic team we’ll face in the regular season and for us it’s important that we know we can play an aggressive [Class] 4A style of play. This was a big win for us.”

Tyrone Brown hit all four of his shots and finished with 13 points for the Kats. Hopkins added 10 and Summers nine.

        

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