By Cary Stemle
With the New Albany Bulldogs back home for a Saturday afternoon game against Columbus East, Romeo Langford picked up where he left off on Thursday night at Jennings County.
After scoring 20 fourth-quarter points in about four minutes of action to finish with a school record 63, Langford had New Albany’s first 16 points on Saturday. He finished with 44 as New Albany won 89-60 its 14th straight game to run its record to 17-1.
Langford hit six of his first seven field-goal attempts — a mid-range jumper; two driving layups that turned into three-point plays; a step-back 2 from the right corner; a shimmy-shake fade-away 3 from the right wing; and a deep 3 from the right side.
“I was just feeling it, I guess,” Langford said in his typically understated way. “They were just going in.”
Columbus East (8-8), which defeated New Albany a year ago with Langford sidelined by a finger injury, didn’t roll over. The visitors pulled within 16-13 on Max Nolting’s 3-pointer before New Albany scored seven straight points to lead 23-13 after one quarter. The Bulldogs outscored Columbus East 17-15 in the second to go up 40-28 at the half.
Langford hit an elbow jumper, Sean East fed Derrick Stevenson for a 3-pointer and Langford made two free throws to cap a 7-0 run for a 57-37 lead midway through the third. East scored 18 points and Stevenson had 12.
“Sean East played really well,” New Albany coach Jim Shannon told reporters after answering several questions about Langford. “The kid shoots 50 percent from 3 and 88 percent from the line. He doesn’t turn it over and gets about five assists a game. He’s close to 1,000 points.”
Shannon lauded Stevenson’s shooting and praised center Trey Hourigan (8 points) and forward Julien Hunter (5 points) for their floor game.
“We have one of those kinds of teams where a lot of the time, Romeo’s gonna shoot it or Sean’s gonna shoot it. Our other guys have green lights, too, but a lot of the time those two are gonna shoot, so there’s really no reason, if I’m those other three, that I’m not getting to the glass — this year,” Shannon said. “I said, ‘Next year your role will change and we’ll be running plays for you, but your role right now is to shoot when you’re open and go get it when (they shoot)’. … They’re great kids.”
There’s still plenty of talk about whether Langford can break the Indiana high school scoring record. He sits in fourth place now, 322 points behind DeShaun Thomas, 323 behind Marion Pierce and 438 behind Damon Bailey. Langford would need to average about 40 points per game the rest of the way, presuming the team plays three sectional games and makes it to the state championship game.
Shannon has never shied away from talking about Bailey’s scoring mark but said it can’t be the focal point. “The record is a long way away, and we don’t want to put so much focus on that that we’re not putting it on our team and on going through the tournament and winning,” he said.
Before the game, Shannon and New Albany athletic director Don Unruh presented Langford with a trophy to honor his inclusion on the McDonald’s All-American team. Shannon said such widespread recognition runs the risk of dulling Langford’s accomplishments.
“Here’s the thing you’ve gotta guard against. Because he does so many things and has received so much attention and so many accolades and so many awards, it can get — not watered down, but you can get like, ‘Oh, well, there’s another one. … You’ve really gotta celebrate it because anytime he breaks a record, it’s still a record.
“He continues to break his own records all the time. Then he gets a thing like McDonald’s All-American, Naismith All-American, and now he’s one of seven finalists for the Wootten Award (for player of the year in the country). … It’s never gone to his head. It’s never affected him.”
New Albany plays at Providence (6-11) on Friday, then goes to Madison (6-12) on Saturday to make up a game that was postponed because of weather. The Dogs’ regular season ends Feb. 23 at Bloomington North (5-11), one week after Langford and East play their last game in the Doghouse against — who else? — Bedford North Lawrence (12-7).
Bailey will be there, too — he’s an assistant coach at his alma mater.
“We’ve been talking about tonight and one more,” Shannon said, “and then you don’t play here anymore. I think it means something to (Langford and East). Bulldog Nation has been good to both of them. They love it here, and we love them. But we’ve got a long way to go, hopefully.”
