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No. 8 Hawks turn back Nevada, stay in HOIC driver’s seat

Balderas makes the running floater look easy, scores 16 in win

South Hamilton junior guard Marco Balderas (2) buries a one-handed running floater, the shot he’s perfected, over Nevada’s Trent Stahl early in the fourth quarter Tuesday night in Nevada. Balderas scored 16 points in the Hawks 61-48 victory. DFJ photo/Troy Banning

NEVADA — The one-handed running floater is not an easy shot to make. It takes skill and touch, two things that materialize only after years of practice.

But on the move, going into the lane and meeting a defender that towers over him, well, that brings a smile to the face of Marco Balderas. You see, he has practiced that preferred shot — over and over … and over again — and it’s to the point that it’s a surprise when it doesn’t make a splash landing in the net.

He may not be big, but he’s perfected the equalizer.

“I’ve never been the tallest, so I’ve practiced that running floater and gotten good at it,” Balderas, a 5-foot-8 junior guard for South Hamilton, said after he buried three of them on his way to 16 points in the eighth-ranked (Class 2A) Hawks 61-48 victory over Nevada Tuesday night. “It basically is a jump shot because I can shoot it from as far away as a jump shot.”

Case in point: the running 3-pointer that he buried just as the buzzer sounded to end the first half. It came only seconds after teammate Connor Hill had canned a triple from the corner and he had swiped the ball at mid-court.

Logan Peters (14), a South Hamilton sophomore forward, puts up a contested jumper over Nevada’s Matt Chitty (33) and Luke Merfeld (14) during the third quarter of Tuesday’s HOIC contest in the Nevada. The No. 8-ranked (Class 2A) Hawks prevailed, 61-48. DFJ photo/Troy Banning

Six points in the final seven seconds of the half extended South Hamilton’s lead to 17 points, 36-19, and the Hawks (13-1, 10-1 HOIC) fended off a furious second-half rally by Nevada (9-6, 6-4 HOIC) to maintain a one-game lead at the top of the conference standings.

“Marco has practiced that shot ever since he was a little kid and he’s got a nice touch on it,” South Hamilton head coach Nathan Hill said. “It’s a tough shot to guard and as a little guy that’s a good shot. It’s fun to watch him when he shoots that.”

Conner Hill cashed in on four first-half 3-pointers and joined Balderas with 16 points. All-state swing man Collin Hill pitched in 15 points and Cole Berg came off the bench to supply six points and a game-high nine rebounds.

Balderas also registered five assists and three steals. Collin Hill added six boards and three steals, and Conner Hill dished out five assists as well.

South Hamilton needed every point it could muster down the stretch after Nevada cut its once large deficit down to four points, 48-44, behind an 11-4 run to open the fourth quarter. Tyler Sansgaard drained a pair of 3’s and Matt Chitty rained in one during the spurt.

South Hamilton freshman Cade Balvanz scores on a turnaround jumper from the low block during the second half on Tuesday in Nevada. DFJ photo/Troy Banning

But the Hawks experience and composure kept Nevada at a distance.

Rather than continue to force the issue against the Cubs’ zone, South Hamilton kept the ball outside and worked more than a minute off the clock. Once Nevada finally came out to defend, the Hawks attacked and the result was an uncontested layup for Collin Hill.

And that was essentially game over.

“We knew that Nevada, at some point, would go on a run,” Nathan Hill said. “So our play was to say if you want to continue to play that zone, we’re going to continue to run clock. Our guys did a very nice job of being patient and when they had to come out and guard us, then we got an easy look down the middle. Then all of a sudden we’re up by seven and then they have to press us full court and that plays into exactly what we want.”

As with most opponents of South Hamilton, Nevada’s game plan was to pack in the zone and double-team Collin Hill whenever he touched the ball. The Cubs’ objective was to make someone else beat them, and in the first half that was Balderas and Conner Hill, who combined to score 21 points in the game’s initial 16 minutes.

DFJ photo/Troy Banning

“It goes back to them stepping up and showing their leadership,” Nathan Hill said. “We’re seeing zones from most teams because teams have trouble matching up with us in man. But we can expose them in a lot of areas.”

South Hamilton outscored Nevada 13-4 over the final five minutes of the contest.

Sansgaard, Trent Stahl and Luke Merfeld all scored 11 points to lead the Cubs.

The win sets up a showdown against Greene County Friday night in Jewell. Along with PCM, the Rams reside in that second-place spot in the HOIC behind South Hamilton and Balderas hopes Tuesday’s road victory will propel his team to an even better performance on Friday.

“It’s always hard to win here,” he said. “Hopefully it will get us going forward because we have another big game coming up.”

DFJ photo/Troy Banning

South Hamilton 61, Nevada 48

Tuesday at Nevada

South Hamilton (13-1, 10-1 HOIC) — Marco Balderas 5 5-6 16, Cole Berg 3 0-0 6, Logan Klemp 2 0-0 4, Colton Coy 0 0-0 0, Logan Peters 1 0-0 2, Collin Hill 6 3-6 15, Conner Hill 6 0-0 16, Cade Balvanz 1 0-0 2. Totals: 24 8-12 61.

Nevada (9-6, 6-4 HOIC) — Trent Stahl 5 0-0 11, Tyler Sansgaard 4 0-0 11, Devin See 0 0-0 0, Jack Higgins 0 0-0 0, Macade Matuska 0 0-0 0, Luke Merfeld 3 5-8 11, AJ Strottman 1 0-0 2, Omunique Wilkerson 3 0-0 6, Simon Saunders 1 0-0 2, Matt Chitty 1 2-4 5. Totals: 18 7-12 48.

So. Hamilton 16 20 9 16 — 61

Nevada 11 8 14 15 — 48

3-point field goals — SH 5 (Con. Hill 4, Balderas); NEV 5 (Sansgaard 3, Stahl, Chitty). Rebounds — SH 27 (Berg 9, Col. Hill 6). Steals — SH 9 (Balderas 3, Col. Hill 3). Assists — SH 19 (Balderas 5, Con. Hill 5). Team fouls — SH 14, NEV 15. Fouled out — NEV: Wilkerson.

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