Thanks to a heroic second-half performance by junior guard Carsimir Paul, Hamilton High School West was able to eke out a narrow 56-54 victory over Pennington on January 9.
HAMILTON -- Thanks to a heroic second-half performance by junior guard Carsimir Paul, Hamilton High School West was able to eke out a narrow 56-54 victory over Pennington on Jan. 9.
Paul struggled through a slow first half, failing to score a single point before intermission.
After the break, Paul put on a show.
The junior finished with 18 points, netting 15 of them in the final quarter of play. Thanks to Paul's second-half explosion, the Hornets were able to hold off Pennington and notch the win.
"The first half, it started slow, and coach (Jason) Malloy, he came into the locker room and told us to come out and play hard," Paul told NJ Advance Media after the victory. "It was really the pep talk he gave us at half. He said to play hard, forget about the first half; don't remember anything about it. Just play."
That's certainly what Paul did after intermission, and it paid dividends for the Hornets, much to Malloy's delight.
"If we don't come out like that in the third quarter, it's an entirely different game and we may have ended up losing," Malloy told NJ Advance Media after the win. "We have to learn to play defense no matter what the score is, whether we're scoring individually, or whether or not we have a lead, or are down as a team. We have to play defense the same way at all times. Most of the time our defense helps our offense, so if we don't defend, we're not a very good team."
Malloy was clearly proud of the way Paul and the rest of his team performed, especially in the second half of the tight contest.
"I just told the guys, every game is 32 minutes and you have to play 32 minutes," Malloy said. "But the start of the third quarter was key and we picked up the intensity a little bit, but we still have to maintain our consistency."
Thanks to Paul's efforts, the Hornets were able to come away with the win, but winning isn't the only thing that's important to Malloy; he also wants all of his players to continue to improve.
"I just told the guys that we need to make sure we keep getting better, even if that means we have to lose," Malloy said. "So the way this game ended, I hope we learned that games are 32 minutes long."
Rich Cuccagna may be reached at rcuccagna@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RichCuccagna. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.