Gillingham unloads for season-high 28 points in Carrollton win
CARROLLTON - Luke Gillingham had a weight on his shoulders of not stepping up to the plate as of yet so far in the Carrollton Hawks season.
He had a terrific campaign last year and has a reputation of being a prolific long-range shooter and just a natural scorer overall.
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“I’ve struggled big time this year,” Gillingham said. "I felt a lot of pressure. I’ve been scoring a lot of points, but I haven’t been shooting the ball that well.”
He has scored in double figures in every game, but has struggled from beyond the arc by hitting 15 percent of his shots.
Gillingham did anything but struggle last night against the Bunker Hill Minutemen as he dropped in a season high of 28 points and led the Hawks to a 61-48 non-conference victory in Bunker Hill.
“I felt like I had a chip on my shoulder to show people that I can shoot with accuracy and just put up points with a lot of field goals,” Gillingham said. “Overall it’s a big confidence booster.”
Jeremy Watson chipped in 15 points and Cole Brannan added 8.
Chase Williams contributed 19 points and drilled three 3-pointers for the Minutemen and Storm Coffman followed up with 15.
Gillingham shot 53 percent (9-17) from the field and made all eight of his foul shots.
“He’s been struggling with his field goal percentage so (9-17) is a lot more like him,” Carrollton head coach Jeff Krumwiede said. “He did a lot of things getting to the rim, set up some people with his penetration, and it wasn’t just about his set shooting game.”
“I lifted a lot this past summer coming into the basketball season just to finish down low, work on my quickness getting to the rim, and finish over and through people,” Gillingham said.
Playing against Bunker Hill was challenge because of their quickness and athleticism.
“I knew they’d make a run,” Krumwiede said. “Their coach (Jay Goltz) does a nice job with them and they’re getting this program turned."
The Minutemen only boast two seniors, but are loaded with juniors, including Coffman and Williams.
Carrollton quickly got out to a 5-0 lead, but then the Minutemen went on a 9-2 run, however the Hawks led 11-9 after the first quarter.
As the second term came around that’s when the Hawks exploded.
Brannan and Jerrett Smith sat for most of the first half with foul trouble, but the Hawks did well thanks to their depth and athleticism that matched Bunker Hill’s.
They out-scored Minutemen 27-13 and got several points in transition by unlocking the Minutemen’s press, which was a big key to Hawks success.
“They’re speed and intensity was good,” Krumwiede said. “People don’t press us very often and I thought we did a really nice job of getting points off of their press.”
On defense the Hawks did a good job of defending the three-ball as well as forcing turnovers and turned some of them into points.
Carrollton was up 38-22 at halftime and led by as many as 21 points in the third quarter.
Generally, the Hawks held a steady lead the rest of the way thanks to good perfect free throw shooting (11-11) and timely shooting.
“It just seemed like each time they made a run at us we were able to make a little mini run ourselves and keep the lead comfortable,” Krumwiede said.
It was revealed this past Sunday that Carrollton is the one seed in the Waverly Holiday Tournament, which will be going through Dec. 26 through the 30th.
“It’s a sign of respect for our program and what we’ve accomplished over the years,” Krumwiede said. “You have to consider it an honor that you can go in their with a 2-1 record after you graduate three-thousand points and still get a number one seed.”
The Hawks will play the hosts South County at 9 a.m. in the first game of the tournament.
Before that they’ll travel to face Triopia this Friday at 7:30 p.m.
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