ZIONSVILLE – Eighteen point deficits with nine minutes to go in basketball are difficult to wipe out. That same deficit when a team is missing one of the state’s top-10 scorers is nearly impossible to overcome. Still, here Tuesday night, Kokomo nearly pulled off an amazing comeback, fueled by sophomore Alan Arnett.

When Zionsville’s Greg McCormick hit a 3-pointer with 1:14 left in the third quarter it gave the Eagles a 45-27 lead. From that point on, however, the Wildkats began a furious comeback that saw them cut the lead to a single point a little over seven minutes later. It wasn’t quite enough though as Kokomo ran out of steam late and fell to the Eagles 64-59.

“In that fourth quarter we were much more aggressive and attacked the basket more,” said Kokomo coach Brian McCauley. “We had a lot of confidence and we played an inside-out game with Patrick Hopkins in the middle. Also, quite simply, we just hit some shots.”

Through three quarters this one appeared to be a runaway. Kokomo’s only lead came at 3-2 when freshman Colton Summers hit a 3-pointer 58 seconds into the game. From there, Zionsville took control with a 21-4 run. Lucas Reiff provided most of the damage during the run, scoring 12 points.

Kokomo’s Brandon Wood, who averages nearly half of Kokomo’s points at 23.6 per game, did not start and sat out the entire first quarter due to disciplinary reasons for missing a practice. He came in at the beginning of the second quarter and scored his only two points of the game while picking up four fouls in just 4:24 of play.

“We had a very sluggish start partly because we were timid and partly because of Zionsville’s defense,” said McCauley. “They weren’t allowing us to penetrate or get post touches. We also got out rebounded 17-8 in the first half and didn’t do a good job of blocking out.”

It was on the offensive glass that Reiff did most of his damage. Kokomo gave up 11 second chance points in the first half, seven of them coming from Reiff who finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists.

Kokomo (4-15) continued to struggle in the third period, missing 11 straight 3-pointers after Summers’ early triple, falling behind by 18 points after McCormick’s shot, which came a little more than a minute after Wood collected his fifth foul.

That is when things began to turn around. First C.J Reeves hit a 3-pointer to make it 45-30 going into the final period. From there, Arnett exploded onto the scene in a big way, as Kokomo seemingly turned into a different team.

The lanky sophomore, who started the season on the JV squad, torched the nets for a career high 22 points, all in the second half. Seventeen of his points came in a furious fourth quarter rally that saw Kokomo score nearly as many points (29) as it did in the first three periods combined. Arnett has previously scored just 21 points all season.

The Kats still trailed 52-38 with 3:46 left, but rallied to score 11 straight points in the next 1:10. Arnett had a huge sequence in which he hit a 3-pointer, got a steal, scored inside, and connected on the ensuing free throw. All told, he scored six points in 10 seconds. Matt Miller broke the streak with a free throw at the 2:03 mark, but Arnett answered with his fourth 3-pointer 17 seconds later to cut the lead to 53-52.

“We really picked up our defensive intensity in the fourth quarter and Alan hit some huge shots for us,” said McCauley. “We also got a lot of help from Hopkins who has now had back to back solid games. Summers had some big shots for us too.”

One point was as close as Kokomo would get, as McCormick iced the game with eight straight free throws to close things out. Summers had a 3-point attempt just miss that would have tied the game at 55 with 1:11 left.

On a night when Kokomo’s middle school teams swept the city-county tournament, McCauley had to be pleased to see his young players shine. Freshman Summers matched his season-high 10 points and the sophomore Hopkins had 15 points and 8 boards to go along with the sophomore Arnett’s 22.

Kokomo finishes its regular season Friday at Maconaquah.