By Bryan Gaskins
Kokomo guard D.J. Balentine liked what he saw when he took the floor Wednesday night at Memorial Gym.
Balentine liked what he saw on the floor too, scoring a career-high 19 points to lead the Wildkats past Western 83-61 in a traditional pre-Thanksgiving game.
“We came out and saw the student section and we were just pumped. We came out ready to play,” sophomore guard D.J. Balentine said. “The coaching staff had a great game plan, got us ready for the big rivalry.”
Balentine drilled three 3-pointers in the first quarter to help the Kats build a 17-13 advantage. They dominated the middle two quarters to take a 65-42 lead, then cruised to the 83-61 final.
Kokomo coach Brian McCauley gave his squad high marks.
“We had great energy, we played smart and we really played together. We can continue to get more intelligent play, but our effort was very, very good, I’m proud of the guys for that, and our [offensive] balance was very good,” he said.
Kokomo put five scorers in double figures — perimeter players Balentine, T.J. Weir (13 points), Armon Bridgeforth (13) and Brock Barbary (12) and post player Parker Salinas ( 11).
“Sharing the ball — it’s a hard team to defend when you do that. We have good depth too,” Balentine said when asked about the balanced attack.
The squads traded the lead six times in the opening quarter. Balentine’s third 3-pointer of the quarter put the Kats up 13-12 and they played in front the rest of the way.
Kokomo began to extend its lead in the second quarter, going up by 12 when Balentine hit a mid-range jumper at 2:16, but Western cut it back to nine by halftime.
Western scored to open the second half, but Kokomo followed with a 9-0 run for a 44-28 advantage. The Panthers followed with six straight points to make it a 10-point game, but the Kats followed with six straight points of their own to regain control.
“The start of the game, the start to the second half — those are some key periods,” McCauley said. “We made a defensive adjustment at half that helped us out. We also said we needed to pick up our ball movement against Western’s zone and we got some nice ball movement and that opened things up, created more offense for us, then we were able to set our defense.”
Kokomo outscored Western 30-16 in the third quarter. Weir scored nine points to lead the Kats, post player Huston Clark had four points and five rebounds, and Balentine offered the exclamation point with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer for a 65-42 lead.
Balentine finished 5 for 10 from 3-point range.
Kokomo’s lead peaked at 27, 74-47, in the fourth quarter.
Kokomo finished with a 43-30 rebounding advantage. Clark, a 6-foot-3 junior, came off the bench to grab a game-high 10 boards to go with six points.
“Huston is one of the most improved players in our program,” McCauley said. “We’ve been pleased with his attitude and effort and he understands his role, and he is playing it well. He gave us a big lift when Cheyse [Swain] and Parker got in foul trouble.”
Matt Reida led Western with 13 points. Drew Larrick followed with 12.
“We got off to a decent start. … I thought fatigue set in during the middle of the second quarter. Some of that is accredited to [the Kats’] athleticism,” Western coach Andy Weaver said.
“We have to learn some things from this game. Offensively, we’re over 50 percent from [inside the 3-point arc] but we’re 3 for 18 from 3. I thought we settled for some quick 3s when we were down, especially in the fourth quarter.”
Weaver also pointed to 12 of 22 free-throw shooting as a disappointment.
