Ollie Impressed With Hamilton in Win

The Huskies moved to 2-0 on the season with a 65-57 win over the College of Charleston in their first game at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.  Not surprisingly, senior point guard Ryan Boatright led the way with 19 points, but freshman Daniel Hamilton added 15 points in 31 minutes.

“He plays with a lot of poise and a lot of maturity," coach Kevin Ollie said of Hamilton. "He knows the game, he can play on all three levels. He can shoot from 3, which we’ve seen; he can get to the rim, he’s got great ball-fakes, great footwork. And he can pass the ball. He threw a couple of lobs to Amida (Brimah), one of them Jeff Anderson called a charge. The other was a great pass. He’s like another point guard out there for me.” “I think he gambled a couple of times and got us out of our principles where we had the help and we got lucky on a couple of missed shots by (Canyon) Barry. It’s a learning process for him, but he’s very coachable. That’s the one thing I love: I can instruct him on something, and he’ll go out there and do it.”

Hamilton added: “I was getting in a rhythm. I’ve been shooting pretty bad preseason. At shootaround, we’ve got to take that seriously, because those are going to be game shots. I try to take as many shots as I can in shootaround, and when they came my way, I just wanted to knock it down.”

More good news: NC State transfer Rodney Purvis, who finally looked comfortable on the court, added nine points in 31 minutes of work, including two big shots down the stretch.

“The shot doesn’t go in, or does go in, we’ve still gotta play good defense," Ollie said. "And he started playing some real good defense. That gets you energized. To see those two 3’s go in, I know it felt good for him. You could see the exuberance on his face, the energy that he had. Hopefully, we can keep finding him for 3’s, because we need to shoot better.”

Contact Us