In my preview of Friday’s annual New Albany-Jeffersonville tilt, I pondered whether anyone on the laidback Bulldogs squad will emerge as an outwardly emotional figure during the second half of the season.
That’s still an open question, but what’s no longer up for debate is how New Albany star Romeo Langford would respond to widespread social media taunts from Red Devil Nation. With quiet but obvious determination, Langford led his team to a surprisingly easy 85-61 victory before a packed house at New Albany.
As usual, particularly in years like this when both teams are ranked in the Class 4A Top 10, game tickets were scarce, and with the respective student sections roaring and coaches on both sidelines clad in suits (a decidedly unpleasant departure for New Albany coach Jim Shannon), you knew it wasn’t just another game.
Things got weird early when Shannon drew a warning to remain in the coach’s box, and Jeff’s Joe Luce received his own admonition a few plays later, prompting him to place a water bottle near the line of demarcation as a reminder of just how far he could go. (Touché).
Jeffersonville’s defensive game plan mirrored that of other teams who’ve tried to slow Langford and running mate Sean East by essentially leaving other Bulldogs unguarded. The score was tight early, but the Devils’ strategy unraveled quickly as they couldn’t hit shots and New Albany controlled the boards and continually caught Jeff napping on defense. A 24-3 run pushed New Albany’s lead to 32-10, keyed by a half-dozen run-outs as Darin Starks, Julien Hunter and East got easy baskets in transition. The lead grew to 28 before New Albany settled for a 45-24 lead at the half, and Jeff never drew closer than 20 points the rest of the way.
Langford scored 33 points on 11-of-15 shooting. East added 17 and Hunter scored 11. New Albany coach Jim Shannon was taken aback by the relative ease of victory, and delighted by the supporting cast’s performance. (Listen to Shannon’s post-game comments.)
Being the best player on the floor in almost every situation, a star like Langford can battle boredom. On Friday, he showed a couple extra gears, persistently grabbing rebounds, blocking shots and slashing to score in traffic, including two dunks (of five, total) when getting to the rim seemed impossible. Langford punctuated the highlight reel with a one-handed tomahawk dunk and a two-hander after he stole the ball and fed East, who drove past a defender and left the ball high off the glass for Langford to flush (prompting a post-game groan from Shannon, who said only half-jokingly that he wished Langford would dunk left-handed to protect his recently disclocated right index finger).
Langford’s performance will go down as one of the best in this long-running rivalry, and it provided a hefty serving of humble pie for the visitors.
“I feel this is the most intense (game) because of the talking Jeff was doing before the game,” Langford told reporters after the game. “We just took that to heart. We don’t do too much talking, we just handle our business on the court and that’s what we did tonight.”
The story likely doesn’t end there, as the teams could meet again in the Seymour Regional. If so, we’ll see if Jeff has gleaned any nourishment from its just desserts.
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NEW ALBANY 85, JEFFERSONVILLE 61
Jeffersonville 7 17 17 20—61
New Albany 18 27 20 20—85
Jeffersonville (9-1, 2-1): Tre Coleman 5-11 5-6 15, Bailey Falkenstein 7-14 3-4 18, Jaden Coleman 4-11 2-2 10, Jacob Jones 4-10 3-3 12, Zeke Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Jaylen Fairman 2-7 0-0 6 Markez Jordan 0-0 0-0 0, Olufemi Kareem 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-54 13-15 61.
New Albany (9-1, 2-1): Romeo Langford 11-15 9-11 33, Sean East 8-15 0-1 17, Derrick Stevenson 3-4 0-0 6, Julien Hunter 5-6 1-1 11, Trey Hourigan 2-2 1-2 5, Darin Starks 3-7 3-3 9, Anthony Irvin 0-0 0-0 0, Savion Southers 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 34-51 14-18 85.
3-point field goals: Jeffersonville 4-12 (Fairman 2-4, Falkenstein 1-3, Jones 1-3, J. Coleman 0-2); New Albany 3-9 (Langford 2-4, East 1-2, Starks 0-2, Stevenson 0-1).
Rebounds: Jeffersonville 28 (T. Coleman 9, J. Coleman 5, Falkenstein 5, Jones 5); New Albany 26 (Langford 12).
Turnovers: Jeffersonville 14, New Albany 12.
Junior varsity: New Albany 45-32.
