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Hawks deflect Cannon for two-game sweep

  • Published
  • By John Stuart
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Saturday matchup

Tinker Hawks guard Gerard West took the inbound pass with just more than two seconds in the game. His team was tied with Cannon Air Force Base and the pressure was on.

With defenders pressing in, he focused his shot and took the two-point jumper. Bam.

His shot rang true. The clock read 1.4 seconds when he buried his bucket and the Tinker Hawks had proved again that when they're focused, they're a force to reckon with.

The Hawks took down an evenly matched Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., team Dec. 5 in a 71-69 win on the home court.

With a 34-33 half-time score in Cannon's favor, the Hawks had their work cut out for them in the second half.

The teams traded the lead throughout the second half, but the Hawks lacked some key focus, coach Clarence Griffin said.

Particularly, free throws continued to plague the Hawks, who shot only eight of 17 during the game.

"Free throws, once again, were kind of an Achilles' heel," Griffin said. Fortunately Cannon wasn't much better as they sank a similar percentage of theirs, going nine for 16 on the day.

Phil Hawthorne lead the way for the Hawks in scoring as he put up 24 points, including five three pointers. Laurence Gray also scored 15 points for the Hawks. In total, four players scored in the double digits, highlighting Tinker's depth of talent, Griffin said.

Sunday matchup

The Hawks cinched their belts a notch tighter on Sunday and it showed. With some pre-game words from Coach Griff -- centered on playing a focused game above all -- the Hawks came out ready to play.

"The team came out and they were much more focused," Griffin said. "We actually had a 38-25 lead at half time."

Although Cannon clawed its way back in the second half and forced an overtime situation with the Hawks, Griffin said he knew his squad would come away with victory.

And he was right, as the Hawks outscored Cannon 15-8 in overtime, including five of eight free throws. The team claimed the 82-75 win and improved to 4-2 overall.

"We just stepped it back up to where we knew we had to be, like in the first half," Griffin said. "There was no question what the result of the overtime would be once we got there.

"It was a good win. In the past seasons we've had situations where we don't always do well in overtime but we were able to get back into what we're here to do and finish strong."