The Sussex Hamilton Chargers boys basketball season came to an end Saturday with a 66-47 defeat to the Arrowhead Warhawks in Division 1 WIAA regional action.
Arrowhead senior Charlie Fischer paced the Warhawks with 22 points. Hamilton freshman Brady Ellingson led the Chargers' cause with 16 points.
Hamilton, which has been plagued with scoring droughts and turnovers most of the season, started this game on the wrong note.
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Arrowhead quickly jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first quarter before Hamilton even dented the scoreboard. Fischer hit a three-pointer to open the scoring, and the Warhawks defense forced numerous early turnovers as well as forced shots.
Once the young Chargers found their rhythm, they began to peck away at the deficit. Junior Brandon Hagenow scored six straight points in setting Hamilton up for a 17-7 run, closing the first quarter with a 17-14 lead.
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Early in the second quarter, it appeared Hamilton was poised for the upset, bumping their lead to five points. Their old demons of turnovers and missed shots, however, resurfaced, and Arrowhead went on a 10-2 run to take a 29-23 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The third quarter turned into a bit of a track meet, as both teams would score quickly. Arrowhead pulled away with a couple of key three-point shots. Ellingson hit one three, while senior Brandon St. George would drain a pair of threes to help extend the Warhawks lead to 48-37 after three quarters.
The old adage says that when you can shoot the ball like that you are shooting the lights out. The adage proved literal, as less than a minute into the fourth quarter, the scoreboard lights frizzled out. The power failure caused a delay of nearly a half hour, as the maintenance crew scrambled to fix the outage.
The delay seemed to breathe new life into Hamilton and to drain the focus from Arrowhead.
As play resumed, Arrowhead set up shop in the front court. A pass to a wide open Fischer caught him off guard, bouncing off his head and out of bounds.
Hamilton capitalized on the opportunity and began to cut into their 11-point deficit. Baskets by sophomores Tony Gumina and Jake Knueppel brought the Chargers back to within seven points.
With a chance to cut the lead to five, an errant shot by Hamilton junior Mark Lunowa allowed Arrowhead to keep the lead. Moments later, the Chargers would have another chance to cut the lead to five, but this time it would be Ellingson who would force a shot ending the Chargers run.
Hamilton was scrambling to cut into the lead, until Fischer picked off an ill-advised cross-court pass and excited the home crowd with a thunderous dunk.
Not to be outdone, Arrowhead senior Charles Rushman picked off a pass and put the exclamation point on the victory with a two-handed dunk of his own.
Hamilton ends their season 8-16. Arrowhead will get to play another day, as their record improves to 21-3.
The Warhawks will face Waukesha West at Marquette University's Al McGuire Center March 11.
