Hamilton Christian turns close game into blowout win over Opelousas Catholic
Published 9:41 pm Monday, February 27, 2023
- In this file photo, Hamilton Christian's Shawn Weston scores during a District 5-1A game against Elton on Feb. 3. Hamilton Christian Shawn Weston led the Warriors with 16 points on Monday in a 81-56 win over Opelousas Catholic in the regional round of the Division IV select playoffs. (Rodrick Anderson / American Press)
After finding their legs, the Hamilton Christian Warriors rolled to an 81-56 win over Opelousas Catholic in a Select Schools Division IV regional round playoff game.
The No. 5 Warriors advance to face the winner of tonight’s No 4 St. Martin’s-No. 13 Ascension Christian game.
OCS hung around in the first quarter, trailing only 17-13, but Hamilton erupted for a 16-4 run early in the second to take control of the game.
HCA led by 10 at halftime and put the game away with a 12-2 run to start the second half.
Warrior big men Malachi Evans and DeeRay Vital controlled the paint, combining to score 19 points and block five shots.
“To say we hadn’t played since Feb. 10 we played a little too aggressively defensively and got early fouls but we settled down and scored pretty consistently,” Hamilton head coach Dexter Washington said. “Trey Green came off bench and sparked us early along with Vital, a big freshman.”
Green hit a pair of threes in the first quarter, the second of which gave the Warriors the lead for good at 15-13. Vital scored four points and blocked three shots in the first half.
Shawn Weston led Hamilton with 16 points. Bryson Colbert added 15. Javon Vital added 11 and Evans finished with 10.
Dontre Henry led OCS with 17. Chris Brown scored 15 and Roderick Tezeno added 11, including a couple of long-range threes in the second quarter.
