3-point barrage leads to SMCC's first win of season

FREMONT — For a few minutes, St. Mary Central Catholic was in danger of an absolutely miserable night. The Panthers turned the ball over on their first four possessions, resulting in 11 points for Fremont St. Joseph. And then SMCC started hitting 3s, getting stops, hitting more 3s and getting more stops, and a night that began in the danger zone ended in big smiles. "I was so proud of them," SMCC coach Kyle Hammond said. "They competed and didn't panic. That's a tough start, the place was going nuts, and our kids made some shots and made some plays and got back in it." SMCC went on to pick up its first win of the season, 66-48, with one of the best shooting performances in program history. The Panthers (1-2, 1-1) made 13 3-pointers after making a combined seven in their first two games. "A lot of these kids are good shooters," Hammond said. "They just needed to see the ball go in the hoop. They started to tonight, and they played really well. I'm proud of them." Four SMCC players finished in double figures, all with multiple makes from beyond the arc. Freshman guard Cayden Wikel finished with 20 points, including five 3-pointers. Garrett Jackson added 17 points (three 3s), five assists and three steals. Brayden Gill pitched in 14 points (three 3s) and three steals, and Charlie Kaftan had 10 points (two 3s), 10 rebounds and three assists. "We couldn't miss," Gill said. "(Wikel) didn't miss. (Jackson), that's money. (Kaftan), wet like water. I was just hitting lucky shots... It just feels so good to finally come out here and get a tough win on the road." It marked the first win at the helm for Hammond in his first season at SMCC after 10 seasons at Edison. "We love the way he coaches, and he's a big part of us and this program," Jackson said. "We can tell he's trying to push us to go as far as we can go each and every day." After the nightmare 11-0 deficit, SMCC answered with a 12-0 run of its own. Jackson hit a 3 to break the drought, then Kaftan, then Gill, then Jackson again. "We just needed to get the ball in against the press and just calm down," Kaftan said. "We took deep breaths in the timeout before we went on the run." Wikel, a freshman, came off the bench and drained two quick 3-pointers, the second one from five feet beyond the arc on the right wing in the final seconds of the opening quarter for a 20-15 lead. "After I hit the first one, I knew it was gonna be a good one," Wikel said. SJCC pulled back within four in the second, but then Gill hit a 3 and Wikel used the threat of the outside shot to pump fake and drive for a layup. Jackson knocked down a top-of-the-key 3 just before the buzzer for a 34-24 lead at the intermission. It was the first of two buzzer beaters on the night for Jackson, who beat the third-quarter horn on a coast-to-coast take ending in a banked floater. "That gives us a lot of good energy," Jackson said. "Going into a new quarter, you don't want to end on a bad note. That gives us a lot of confidence to continue to play how we're playing." That third quarter left little doubt in the outcome. Gill started it with a steal and a ridiculous, sky-high scoop shot through contact that somehow fell through. Then it was Wikel hitting three 3-pointers in two minutes to put the game out of reach. "I see him do all this stuff in practice every single day," Jackson said. "I was just waiting for the day for him to go out and show it, and he did. He was big for us the whole game." Each time a shot fell, it was a bit of catharsis for an SMCC team that knew it could shoot but couldn't make shots in two wide-margined losses to open the season against Huron and Old Fort. "It just feels so good once you see the ball go through," Jackson said. "It gets us in a rhythm early, and once we have that, we could just go throughout the whole game being confident." And each time a teammate knocked another one down, it just increased the desire to match it. "It's contagious," Kaftan said, then repeated. "It's contagious. It's contagious, man." The Panthers may have hit a few more if not for a fourth-quarter approach that focused on keeping possession rather than shooting. But man, who would've thought that SMCC was stalling with a lead in the final minutes after how Friday night started? "We played hard, were physical, got offensive and defensive rebounds," Hammond said. "Second-chance points and deflections were a big difference in the game. We're not the biggest team. We've got to be a scrappy team." And so in the final moments, Hammond even got a chance to sub in his JV players who a couple hours earlier had finished off a 24-point victory of their own. It was quite the evening for St. Mary Central Catholic, one that was all the more remarkable given how the varsity game began. "It definitely gets some pressure off of our shoulders, getting the first one out of the way," Hammond said. "I really like this team. I'm excited about our future." SMCC Bryan Gibson 1 2-5 4, Brayden Gill 6 0-0 14, Garrett Jackson 5 4-4 17, Sam Lawrence 0 1-2 1, Charlie Kaftan 4 0-2 10, Cayden Wikel 6 3-6 20. TOTALS 21 10-21 66 SJCC Clay Stull 1 2-2 5, Cooper Talikka 8 2-3 21, Sam Paeth 1 0-0 2, Nick Anderson 1 0-0 3, Jacob Schmeml 1 0-0 2, Grant Pert 4 3-4 12, Matt Connell 1 0-0 2, Will Connell 0 1-4 1. TOTALS 17 8-13 48 SMCC 20 14 26 12 — 66SJCC 15 9 7 17 — 48 3-point goals — SMCC 13 (C. Wikel 5, Jackson 3, Gill 3, Kaftan 2); SJCC 6 (Talikka 3, Pert 1, Stull 1, Anderson 1)