Kokomo edges Frankfort by 3 points

By CHRIS GARNER
Tribune sportswriter

December 29, 2007 12:33 am

— FRANKFORT — The Kokomo basketball team made sure this New Year’s would ring in a lot happier than last year’s with a well-deserved 63-60 victory over Frankfort at Case Arena here Friday, ensuring the Wildkats (4-3) a winning mark entering 2008.
The Kats steadily built a double-digit lead with a very clinical first half, fought back the Hot Dogs a couple times and had just enough left in the tank despite woeful free-throw shooting and poor defensive rebounding.
“For the most part we found a way to win, and that’s huge — just a mentality of just refusing to lose,” said Kokomo coach Brian McCauley. Exactly one year ago today an overtime loss to Frankfort at Memorial Gymnasium slumped the Wildkats to an 0-8 start last season.
The turnaround has been palpable.
“If you have that mentality, boy, that can cover up a lot of mistakes,” McCauley said.
The game’s only lead change is where the contest hinged. It came when Stevie Loveless capped a 14-4 run for the Hot Dogs (4-3) with an arching 3-point field goal at the 3:15 mark of the third quarter to give the hosts a brief 39-38 advantage.
Moments later McCauley called timeout after an illegal block gave the ball back to Frankfort. The Kats answered with more pressure — something that was a hallmark of the first half — and an 11-1 happy streak of their own to end the period.
The two-minute, 53-second stretch featured three takeaways that led to eight points, including an Alston Andrews’ theft at midcourt that resulted in his 3-point play at his bucket. Kokomo wound up with the same nine-point halftime lead, 49-40, heading into the fourth frame.
“I was extremely proud of how the guys responded to adversity there,” said McCauley. “That was a situation where … our guys were pretty disappointed in the huddle. That was the game right there.
“We came out of the timeout and decided to match up and go with our man defense and the guys really responded well to that with several steals. I guess we had just enough points to win.”
Every point would be needed as Frankfort’s Jack Warwick scored 12 of his game-high 31 points in the fourth period. His two charity tosses with 32 seconds to play drew the Dogs within one at 58-57.
For the game Warwick connected on 6 of 10 shots from behind the arc and was 10 of 15 from the field.
Thankfully the Wildkats’ shooting touch at the foul line returned in the nick of time. T.J. Weir sank two from the line for a 60-57 lead. Loveless plowed into two Kokomo defenders at the other end for an easy charging call, and Colton Summers buried two more free throws to give the Kats a 62-57 lead with 15 seconds remaining.
Loveless canned a running 3-pointer, Summers made one of two foul shots for Kokomo and Loveless’ 3-attempt while being harassed by Andrews went astray at the horn.
The 5 of 6 effort in the final minute contrasted an overall mark of just 12 of 23 from the free-throw line for Kokomo. While the Wildkats were outrebounded only 24-21, half of those were offensive boards for Frankfort, which converted them into 16 second-chance points.
Without those two equalizers, the Kats shot 59 percent from the field (23 of 39), including 67 percent in the first half, and forced 18 turnovers.
“They’re a good team and they made some big plays at the end,” said Frankfort coach Jason Good. “They keep putting pressure on you and they have those two or three runs where we turned it over and they got some big baskets. We just weren’t able to quite get over the hump.”
Weir led the Wildkats with 18 points, including four 3-pointers. Summers had 12 points and Patrick Hopkins scored 15 and grabbed five rebounds.
Kokomo also got five boards from Tyrone Brown, three assists from Jacob Blackamore, three rebounds by C.J. Reeves and nine points, three assists and four steals by Andrews.
“Take away any one of those guys that played [Friday] night and I don’t think we win,” said McCauley. “It took every one of our guys contributing and I’m really pleased with that.”

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