Central Catholic, Hamilton finish strong in Gallo home debut

Josh Hamilton slammed his fists against the bench and then scolded himself.

Amrit Dhaliwal pleaded to the officials for leniency, but ultimately found himself on the bench, too.

Cooper Wilson disappeared around the corner of the home stands to let off steam before taking a seat.

Around and around they went, the Central Catholic boys basketball team’s fleet of sharpshooting guards, as coach Mike Wilson, often red-faced and fuming, searched for the right combination in their home debut Thursday.

“I call that trolling, like in fishing,” he said. “What I had, there was nothing in sync. No flow to what we were doing. I don’t think mentally we were ready to play and I was looking for people that would work.”

Playing their first game in the pristine Mark Gallo Health and Fitness Center, the Raiders looked neither polished nor pretty. But the reigning Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV champions were resilient in a come-from-behind 67-57 victory over Tracy.

Coach Wilson blamed the uneven performance on a long layoff. The Raiders hadn’t played a game in 12 days because of finals.

“This was my worry and I told them that,” he said. “This was practice. This is what our practices have been like the last two weeks – up and down and up and down and up and down.”

Hamilton was the spark.

Held scoreless in the first half, the junior point guard scored all 20 of his points over the final two quarters, including 12 in the fourth.

Hamilton knocked down three 3-pointers and three of his four free throws in the final 90 seconds to extend Central Catholic’s season-long winning streak to seven.

Jared Rice had 14 points, five rebounds and four assists, while Wilson (eight) and Dhaliwal (seven) combined for 15 points. DaRon Bland had a team-high nine rebounds.

With his team trailing at the half, 29-23, Wilson turned the locker room over to his starting backcourt, Hamilton and Rice. Wilson said their message had a calming effect on players and coach.

“Tracy is a really good team, but it was our first game at home and we didn’t want to take a loss,” Hamilton said. “I just kept telling the guys to play hard, step it up on defense and I needed to play better in the second half.”

The Raiders overcame a six-point deficit and took their first lead of the game on a corner 3-pointer by Dhaliwal, who was left open as the defense collapsed on Rice.

Charging through the lane, Rice kicked the ball to Dhaliwal, whose smooth stroke propelled the Raiders to a Sac-Joaquin Section title and deep Northern California regional run.

Dhaliwal’s triple pushed Central Catholic ahead 48-46, a lead it would not relinquish.

“When Amrit hit that 3, I felt like that changed momentum,” Hamilton said. “I feel like our offense started going and our defense started picking up. It was a lot more comfortable than it was before.”

Dhaliwal and Rice made back-to-back left-handed layups, and then turned the ball over to the closer.

Hamilton scored 12 of Central Catholic’s final 15 points, including the dagger – a 3 from the wing – with 37 seconds left.

Trailing 42-36 with 2:04 left in the third quarter, the Raiders outscored the Bulldogs 31-15 the rest of the way.

“We’re resilient. We can play through adversity,” Hamilton said. “We’re a family around here, so we pick each other up.”

Central Catholic got off to a choppy start in its new gymnasium, a spacious, multimillion-dollar venue.

Early on, the home rims weren’t kind to the Raiders, who missed nine of their first 14 free throws and didn’t hit a 3 until midway through the fourth quarter.

Tracy (8-3) led by as many as nine in the first half and seemed to have an answer for every moment of brilliance by Central Catholic.

“We were chucking up 3s but none of them were going in,” Hamilton said. “Coach said he was going to get a ladder to see if the backboard was broken. We believe we can shoot. We’re small, so no matter what we’ll keep shooting. That’s how we play the game.”

Central Catholic won’t have to wait long for its next game. The Raiders will play Central of Fresno in the first round of Modesto Christian’s Holiday Hoop Classic on Tuesday.

This story was originally published December 23, 2016 at 9:38 AM with the headline "Central Catholic, Hamilton finish strong in Gallo home debut."