By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Saddled with foul trouble but undeterred, the Burlington School’s big guy came up big late in Friday night’s boys’ basketball game.
Kaden Hammond, a 6-foot-8 forward, scored nine of his team’s 11 points in the fourth quarter in a 62-58 road victory against Burlington Christian Academy (BCA). The result gave the Spartans the outright regular-season championship in the Central Carolina Athletic Conference.
“I needed to get in the flow of the game and not do too much,” Hammond said.
Hammond and teammate Cam Flippen each scored 17 points for TBS (16-10 overall, 6-0 CCAC).
“We’ve been playing tough games all season,” Flippen said. “We knew they were going to come out like that. It was a championship game.”
BCA’s Charles Chienggen Pur racked up 21 points and Manny Vanhook had 12 points.
The Royals (16-9, 4-2), aiming to avenge a 29-point loss from December, led for most of the first three quarters in their noisy gym.
“We did a really good job with our defensive toughness,” BCA coach Nolan Myrick said.
Hammond outscored the Royals in the fourth quarter.
“We needed him to stay in the game and we were going to need him to score,” TBS coach George Marshall said.
No TBS player other than Hammond scored in the fourth quarter until Flippen drained two free throws with 19.1 seconds left. Vanhook countered with a banked-in 3-pointer with 9.5 seconds to go before Hammond sank two foul shots to seal the outcome.
BCA committed three turnovers in the final 55 seconds.
“They did the smart thing with the press,” Myrick said. “We had some opportunities.”
Hammond sat out almost eight minutes after picking up his second foul 2:45 into the game. An offensive foul early in the third quarter was his third foul and he was whistled for his fourth with 5:35 left.
Yet Hammond rejected a shot from Chienggen Pur to keep TBS with a two-point lead.
“That was a big play when he made that block,” Myrick said.
Hammond said he didn’t want to be timid.
“Trying to play physical and still play smart,” he said. “Last year, he kind of got the best of me.”
Flippen said it was no surprise that Hammond made the late-game contributions despite the foul trouble.
“I’m just glad he didn’t shy away from the moment and go blank,” he said.
The teams could meet again Friday night in the conference tournament championship game at TBS after their respective semifinal games Tuesday.
- In the girls’ game, TBS (10-8, 6-0) won 70-28 with Alaiyah Mitchell’s 20 points and Kennedy Harrelson’s 18 points leading the way. Madison Bruce had seven points for BCA (6-9, 4-2).
