Hamilton Southeastern Rebounds To Beat Carmel

After losing to New Castle Tuesday, Hamilton Southeastern was able to rebound to defeat Carmel, 58-51.

The center match-up between John Michael Mulloy and Mabor Majak took center stage early. Carmel worked the ball through Mulloy on the block. Majak held his own, although, Mulloy scored four points early. Mulloy ended up spending a lot of time on the bench in the first half after picking up his second foul. 

With Mulloy on the bench in the second period, Carmel decided to take advantage of its spacing and shooting. The Greyhounds buried five three-pointers in the second quarter - Alex Jackson came off the bench to hit two of them. Behind the hot shooting, Carmel held a 26-25 lead at halftime.

The second half started with a bang as Noah Smith found Aaron Etherington for an alley oop dunk. Etherington had seven points in the third quarter on his way to a big second half. Junior Luke Heady was able to find space for two triples early in the second half for Carmel. The pace and scoring were fluid in the third quarter. John Michael Mulloy made up for lost time as he scored eight points in the stanza. 

Carmel held a four to seven point lead for a large portion of the second half. It wasn't until Chaz Birchfield and Aaron Etherington started to pile up offensive rebounds that Hamilton Southeastern was able to take the lead in the fourth quarter. Nick Bowman came up big for HSE as well. He had a steal and dunk that gave the Royals a lift. 

It was a three-pointer by Etherington that gave HSE a 48-46 lead in the fourth period. Carmel had looks to tie the game late but was unable to connect on any of them. Etherington capped off the game with a vicious dunk at the buzzer to give Hamilton Southeastern the 58-51 victory.

Aaron Etherington finished with 17 points and six rebounds. Chaz Birchfield had a huge 13-point, 13-rebound performance. He owned the offensive glass. Bowman added 16 points. Mabor Majak finished with seven points.

Butler-bound forward John Michael Mulloy finished with 17 points to lead Carmel. No other Carmel player reached double figures - Luke Heady (8), Alex Jackson (6), Eddie Gill (5) and Karsten Windlan (5) were the other main scorers.