FORT WAYNE – From the upper reaches of Memorial Coliseum, where 400-some vocal Oakland fans dressed in black celebrated the Grizzlies’ doubleheader sweep of IPFW, the decades-old chant of “Reg-gie” arose for their 5-foot-11 senior guard, Reggie Hamilton.
If Reggie Jackson was the self-proclaimed straw that stirred the drink for the Yankees in the mid-1970s, then this Reggie is the Hamilton blender for Oakland. His 30 points and eight assists were too much for IPFW to overcome in its 96-86 Summit League loss to the Grizzlies on Saturday.
In spite of Hamilton, IPFW (9-8, 3-5 Summit) had gotten Oakland’s attention when, with 7:35 remaining, Mario Hines’ bucket underneath off a feed from Justin Jordan got the Mastodons within 73-67.
And with the IPFW bench all but begging for a defensive stop coming out of the timeout, it was Hamilton’s fade-away 14-footer from the left wing that silenced the IPFW side.
He scored again with three seconds remaining on the shot clock, and Oakland (10-10, 4-4) dropped a three-pointer to go back on top 80-67. IPFW was a goner from there.
“My coaches tell me players make plays, and on this team I’m counted on to be a player at certain times, and I’m thankful that the shot fell for me,” Hamilton said.
“He’s good,” IPFW coach Tony Jasick said. “He does a good job of running their team. I thought at times we got him to take some tough shots, but over the course of a 40-minute game, I thought he was really good.
“You look at the guards in our league, you’ve got to bring it every night. It’s a big boy league now. Fortunately we’ve got one of those guys on our team now that you’ve got to guard.”
Meaning Frank Gaines, whose 19 points were one behind the season-high of 20 by junior center Mario Hines. Trey McCorkle, still feeling the effects of being injured in a fall last week, played 16 minutes, got three rebounds and didn’t score.
It wasn’t McCorkle’s injury, or Hamilton’s 30, on which Jasick blamed the loss.
“I’m very disappointed in our overall defensive effort,” he said. “(Saturday) we did not put practice into the game. Our scouting report, we didn’t execute defensively the way we wanted it. They shot 50 percent, and 48 from three. For us to win, we can’t do that.”
