Feb. 2—Kokomo’s boys basketball team took the lead late in the first quarter and kept it the rest of the way in beating Indianapolis Cathedral 91-74 in a Class 4A Top 10 clash on Thursday night inside an energetic Memorial Gym.
The No. 7-ranked Kats had to hold off the No. 5 Irish’s repeated challenges as the game was tight for 3 1/2 quarters. It was 22-19 after the first quarter, 41-36 at halftime and 64-57 after the third quarter. The Irish closed to within three points on three occasions in the fourth quarter (66-63, 68-65 and 70-67) before the Kats put it away with a 9-0 run for a 12-point lead with 3:00 remaining.
Kokomo (17-3) received strong contributions from all seven players who saw time.
“You’re starting to see it come together now,” Kokomo coach John Peckinpaugh said. “It’s a process all year. We have a lot of young guys playing a lot of minutes, or guys who haven’t played [before this year]. It’s starting to click. That’s what we can do.”
Let’s look at all seven players and their contributions that helped Kokomo win its eighth straight game.
—The dynamic front-line duo of McDonald’s All-American Flory Bidunga and Karson Rogers had their typically dominant games. Bidunga made 9 of 10 shots and finished with 23 points, 17 rebounds, five assists and five blocked shots. It marked his 65th career double-double. Rogers had 23 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. They combined for all nine points during the decisive fourth-quarter run.
Bidunga surpassed 1,400 career points and 1,000 career rebounds in the game.
They also provided an exclamation point to the win. In transition, Rogers threw a pass off the backboard for Bidunga, who took the pass and hammered home a dunk for a 90-70 lead at 1:16.
—Junior post Andrew Barker provided valuable minutes off the bench in both halves as Rogers and Bidunga battled foul trouble. Barker scored a career-high eight points on 4-of-5 shooting as he made himself available inside for clean entry passes.
“Barker was huge,” Peckinpaugh said. “He’s a really good high school big man. He’d start most places. Unfortunately, he plays behind a McDonald’s All-American who’s going to Kansas, but he keeps getting better every day because he works every day.”
—Korbyn Hammel turned in his best two-way game of the season. The sophomore guard scored a career-high 17 points and also had three assists and three steals. With fellow starting guard and defensive ace Reis Beard out with an injury, Hammel took on the assignment of guarding 6-foot-9 Cathedral wing Brady Koehler. He held Koehler to 16 points —including just six after the first quarter.
“He did a great job on Koehler,” Peckinpaugh said. “We wanted him to be physical. He kind of got out of position in the first quarter, then we fixed it and he did a great job the rest of the night. He only allowed him to take nine shots and that’s what we wanted.”
—Junior guard Zion Bellamy had 10 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals. He handled the Irish’s full-court pressure well, committing just two turnovers.
—With Beard out, junior A’Dayveon Young drew the start and sophomore Baris Moore backed him up. Young hit two 3-pointers late to help seal it and he finished with eight points and three steals. Moore had two points and two assists.
“Reis is our leader with his toughness and defense,” Peckinpaugh said. “I thought A’Dayveon played really well, I thought Baris did some really good things for us and played with some confidence.”
The Kats shot 35 of 61 (57.4%) overall and 5 of 8 (62.5%) from 3-land. They reached 90 points for just the fifth time in the last 37 years.
Cathedral coach Jason Delaney pointed to the Kats’ guard play as a key to their win.
“You know what you’re going to get from Flory and Rogers. I thought their guards played outstanding. They handled our pressure and they hit shots, which on film and their percentages say they don’t always hit,” he said. “I thought their guard play was really good.”
Delaney pointed to 24-of-61 shooting (39.3%) and missed defensive assignments as the downfall for his team.
“Credit to Kokomo, they made the plays,” he said.
Koehler and Keaton Aldridge led the Irish (13-3) with 16 points apiece.
The game lacked flow at times. The teams combined for 21 turnovers in the first half and 32 for the game, and they combined for 48 fouls. Kokomo made 16 of 31 free throw attempts while the Irish made 20 of 24.
Even with the occasionally uneven play, Peckinpaugh liked how the Kats kept the lead, especially when Bidunga had to sit after picking up his fourth foul at 3:06 of the third quarter. Kokomo led 52-45 when he went to the bench and it was 66-63 when he returned at 6:08 of the fourth quarter.
“We did a good job of keeping our composure,” he said. “I thought a couple times, we got going too fast, but we were making plays … we have to learn to handle and value some of those possessions toward the end of the game, but overall I thought our guys handled themselves really well with the atmosphere and we made some good decisions down the stretch.”
Bryan Gaskins is the Tribune’s sports editor. He may be reached at bryan.gaskins@kokomotribune.com or 765-454-8567.
