GOLD & BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 4 59
P R E S E N T S : M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L R E C R U I T I N G
Bill
Ray
Weatherford doesn't need
to score to affect games
Grant Weatherford is only third on his Hamilton Heights team in scoring. And
though that statistic may be what some look at to define him, it far from tells
the story of the gritty, defensive-minded Purdue signee.
BY BRIAN NEUBERT
BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com
MONTICELLO, Ind. — This is just kind
of what Grant Weatherford does.
It was a Friday night game at Twin Lakes
High School and the Purdue recruit and
his visiting Hamilton Heights team were
pushed to their brink.
After Heights roared out to a nearly
20-point lead in the first half by virtue of
some scorching early shooting, the home
team delivered a significant third-quar-
ter counterpunch, a 20-6 run to open the
second half that turned what looked like
a blowout into a possession-to-possession
game.
Still surging, Twin Lakes held the ball in
the final seconds of the third quarter, hop-
ing for a last shot that would bring it within
two, maybe one with a three-pointer, head-
ing into the game's final eight minutes.
But before the Indians' ball-handler
could even consider a move toward the
basket, there was Weatherford wrestling
— willing, really — the ball away from
him, not as much stealing it as separating
its occupier from it.
The race to the loose ball was no contest.
Weatherford doesn't get beat to very many
of those. He collected it and raced end to
end for a layup just before the buzzer.
It pushed Hamilton Heights' lead to six,
but on another level, bore additional signif-
icance. It was a statement sort of play that
if Twin Lakes was going to beat Weath-
erford's team, it was going to have to go
through him.
It was the biggest play of the game, one
A Different Kind Of Impact
