Strong Second Half Propels Hamilton Girls to Win Over Waukesha South

Freshman forward Mackenzie Latt led the way with 17 points as the Hamilton girls basketball team defeated Waukesha South, 47-30, Saturday afternoon in a WIAA Division 1 regional final.

The NBA's San Antonio Spurs are notorious for sticking to the game plan, no matter what happens - knowing that they eventually will have success.

The Chargers (15-7) did the same thing on Saturday and it paid dividends in the second half as Hamilton outscored the Blackshirts (16-6) by 28-8 margin in that half, including a 12-2 run in the third quarter.

This may cause some to think that a big halftime speech was involved, but that wasn't the case. The Chargers just stuck to the plan and it worked.

However, Hamilton head coach Dan Carey notice one facet of the game that improved in the second half and had a big impact on the outcome.

“We were playing with a purpose the whole time. They were just making a lot of shots (in the first half),” said Carey. “We were able to get a hand up on their shooters and hold them to one shot. I think that was a big momentum swing.”

Indeed, it was a big momentum swing, and when Carey said "one shot," he meant one shot. Waukesha only managed one made field goal in second half and that came late in the third quarter. For as bad as the Blackshirts were from the field in the third quarter, the Chargers were just as good, going 6 of 7 from the field.

The fourth quarter boiled down to a free-throw shooting contest and this is where Hamilton really shined, going 9 of 11 from the line. What made this even more amazing is that most of those came from freshman guard Hannah Menzia.

With the win, Hamilton advances to the sectional semifinal at 6 p.m. Thursday against either Nicolet or Germantown.