Kory Hamane Shines At Prep!

It’s a New Year Pressure family, but it’s more of the same old thing on the high school front.  Pressure Alumni excelling at the high school level.

This time, we feature Kory Hamane.

Kory, along with Andre Frazier and Elijah Reed, made up Pressure Basketball’s “Big Three” from the class of 2008. 

A freshman now at Flintridge Prep, Kory raised a lot of eyebrows during football season becoming a standout for the JV football team. Now, that football season is over, he finally gets a chance to show what he can really do. Play basketball!

Kory is quickly becoming a key part of a varsity squad, (9-5 at the time of this story), that includes another Pressure Alum, sophomore Jordan Whaley and is really starting to come into his own. Here’s what his mother, Angel Hamane, had to say about her son. 

“We are extremely happy with him at Flintridge Prep.  He has started about half the games and gets A LOT of playing time (over three-quarters of the game) for all the games he’s played (so far).” 

“For his first year, he has had two game-high games ( 24 points against Duarte in the San Gabriel Tournament, and 19 points in league play against Rio Hondo Prep.)  His awesome defense sometimes goes unnoticed – too bad there’s no stat that shows how he can shut his man down.” 

Brice, thank you so much for everything that you’ve done for Kory.  You have truly made him into a complete player.  His knowledge of the game along with his strong display of fundamental skills makes him appear far beyond his freshman status.  You make us very proud parents… Keith & Angel Hamane”

It was that “Pressure Defense” Kory displayed, that helped win a big game against Crescenta Valley.

This is a recap from the Glendale News Press: …with the clock winding down below 10 seconds, freshman Prep guard Kory Hamane intercepted a Falcons pass at midcourt and pushed the ball downcourt to the streaking Chow, who rattled home a breakaway layup with just over two seconds remaining.

“Really all we had to do was play our defense and stop the ball,” Hamane said. “We were actually ready for the second overtime, but [the ball] just came to me and I pushed it up.” click here to read story

Here’s another quote from the Mid Valley News: “Flintridge Prep freshman guard Kory Hamane was another who had a hot hand in the tournament, heating up the floor with 10 of 14 from the field that accounted for his game leading 24 point performance.” . . . “Flintridge routed Duarte 18-4 closing out the first half and effectively put it away for good in the initial minutes of the fourth” with a final score of 72-41.

Kory was also honored over the summer. The Asian community from all of California has a North-South tournament where the best asian players from Northern and Southern California are showcased in a 3 game series. Players are nominated by coaches from all over the state and they do not have to play in an Asian league, but do have to have some Asian in them.  The South prevailed 3-0 and Kory won the highest honor of the tournament, “Most Complete Player”, for the 9th grade division.

Kory is not the only “hot hand” in the Hamane family, younger brother Kyle is following in his footsteps hitting big shots for Pressure Basketball Club as well.

Congratulations Kory, you are proof that hard work and tough defense pay off at the next level..

Story by – Eric “Rico” Reed -