By Cary Stemle
Another night, another Romeo Langford story. Or 10.
The senior guard erupted for 53 points in a 92-44 win over cross-town rivals Providence, and gave fans from both schools something to talk about with an length-of-the-court heave that found the bottom of the net as the first-quarter horn sounded.
The shot came after Providence’s Cullen Ebert hit a 3-pointer that looked like a buzzer beater itself. Langford caught the inbounds pass between the Providence basket and free-throw line and arced a two-hander, then turned toward the New Albany bench.
“I told Sean take it out, and Sean threw it behind his back because I guess he just thought time was gonna run out, and I just threw it,” Langford said. “I didn’t think it was going in, so I looked away. I looked back and it was going in. .. We joke around and shoot them all the time in practice.”
New Albany again found itself facing off against an overmatched team that nonetheless came to compete. “I knew it’d be their Super Bowl,” New Albany coach Jim Shannon said, “and I knew they’d come out and play. I know the score wasn’t indicative of it, but I thought they played really well for the talent they have.”
Langford scored 15 of New Albany’s first 17 points on two 3-pointers, three two-pointers and five free throws, and the length-of-the-court 3-pointer gave him 20 for the quarter en route to a 29-point first half.
East got going in the third quarter and finished with 16 points.
New Albany transfer Blake Murphy paced Providence with 12 points, including a two-handed dunk that electrified the home crowd that never lost its enthusiasm.
Langford says he especially enjoys the local rivalries. “I love them — they’re the best games that we have. We want to be the ones who are able to talk at the end of the night.”
Langford’s long shot was so off-handed that it caught many people off-guard. I was sitting under the opposite basket and barely grabbed the video clip below, which misses his release but shows the ball eventually piercing the net like an egg dropped into a basket as he heads for the bench in the far distance.
“Incredible,” Shannon said. “It’s just not fair to be able to do all the things he an do and take a ball like that and throw it … We kinda needed it. We weren’t playing that great at the time. We were standing around. Our defense wasn’t good early.”
