Rick Wood
Milwaukee Hamilton’s Kevon Looney blocks the shot by Milwaukee King’s Diamantae Freeman Tuesday night.
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Mark and JR discuss the final week of regular season for boys basketball. They touch on the Woodland Conference, City Conference and discuss Kettle Moraine. On the girls side they talk about Pius vs. Pewaukee and Divine Savior Holy Angels.
This is really what Kevon Looney wanted.
Milwaukee Hamilton's McDonald's All-American has won just about every individual accolade there is, but when it came to being a champion he'd fallen short. As a freshman he helped the Wildcats get to the state tournament, but that team finished third in the City Conference. They were fourth his sophomore year and third last season.
In his senior year, Looney and the Wildcats have gone on a magical ride that, thanks to a 76-72 victory at Milwaukee King on Tuesday night, will give the school a share of its first conference title since 2010.
"I told myself I couldn't lose this game," the 6-foot-9 forward said. "I've been waiting for this opportunity my whole career."
Looney finished with a game-high 26 points for Hamilton, which is ranked eighth in the area by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and received votes in this week's Associated Press Division 1 state poll. And midway through the fourth quarter he became one of about two dozen players in state history to score 2,000 points.
What has made Hamilton (15-5 overall, 10-0 City) a dangerous team since the turn of the new year, however, has been the play of Looney's teammates, and they delivered against King, which is ranked second in the area and second in Division 1.
Sophomore point guard Danya Kingsby finished with 18 points and helped seal the victory by hitting four straight free throws in the final 19 seconds. Jalen Addison, a junior guard, hit 5 three-pointers and scored 15 of his season-high 17 points in the first half. Senior forward Jhamad Norwood added 13 points and did his usual stellar work on the boards.
The Wildcats needed all those efforts to win a game in which they led by 15 in the first half only to have King (19-2, 9-1) storm back and take the lead with 5 minutes left in the third quarter. From there the lead changed nine times.
"It was tough....I'm speechless right now," Kingsby said. "I just feels great to beat King and be City champs. It's a big accomplishment."
The Generals' comeback was led by a smashing performance by senior guard Jemell Posey, who finished with 24 points and shook his team out of its early doldrums with eight second-quarter points.
Down the stretch Looney played inspired ball, though. After the game was stopped briefly to recognize his 2,000th point, he hit his only three of the game to give Hamilton a 60-59 lead with 4 minutes 48 seconds left
Junior guard Joe Binyoti's jumper 34 seconds later allowed King to regain the lead, but Looney tipped in a teammate's miss to give Hamilton the edge again and then got to the free throw line, where he sank both ends of a bonus to make it 65-61 with 3:04 left.
The Generals responded with two free throws each from Posey and senior forward Chris Howell and a bucket by junior forward Diamantae Freeman to give King a 67-65 lead with 2:23 left.
The game was 69-67 in favor of King when Looney found Norwood for a layup to tie the game with 1:17 remaining and then took advantage of back-to-back turnovers to take the lead for good. Looney's two free throws with 33.3 left gave his team a 71-69 lead, and Kingsby's two made it a four-point game with 18.2 to play.
King freshman Jordan Poole buried a three from the corner to cut that lead to a point, but Kingsby sealed the win with two more free throws with 9.9 seconds to go.
"We just couldn't finish it. We were in a position to get it done and came up empty," King coach Jim Gosz said. "Credit Hamilton. They didn't miss any free throws down the stretch. We banged ours."
The Generals were 3 for 10 from the line in the fourth quarter. Hamilton, a team that's had its struggles at the line this season, was 12 for 14 and finished the game 25 for 30.
The victory was the team's 12th straight. A victory at Milwaukee Vincent on Friday will give the Wildcats the crown outright.
"We've still got games left. I'm just overwhelmed now," Hamilton first-year coach Randy Williams said. "Hell of a job by Hamilton High School."
