By Cary Stemle
SEYMOUR, INDIANA — One of the funnest things about basketball, whether you’re a player or a fan, is how it provides a platform for average Joes and Josephines to talk trash.
Case in point: The Bedford North Lawrence chap who engaged me in this conversation when the Stars traveled to the Doghouse on Feb. 16.
Fan (sitting on the front row in the visitors’ section): “What do you think?”
Me (sitting cross-legged on the baseline, taking video): “You mean, will he get Damon’s record?”
F: “Oh, he ain’t gettin’ the record.”
M: “I don’t think he cares that much. He just wants to win state.”
F: “They ain’t winning state. If Floyd don’t get ’em, South will.”
***
Said fan deserves credit for correctly identifying two of the teams that would eventually stand in New Albany’s path to its second state title in three years.
But let the record reflect that his prognostications were faulty. A week after dispatching their county rival Highlanders to avenge their only loss of the season, the Dogs avoided returning the favor to Bloomington South in Saturday’s second Seymour Regional semifinal, convincingly capturing the rematch 65-45 to advance to Saturday night’s final against Center Grove, 69-44 winners over Evansville North.
No. 3 New Albany (24-1) got the upper hand early and led 14-7 after one. The lead grew to 22-10 after a Sean East basket before a South rally made it 27-21 at the half.
The Dogs took over in the third quarter, clamping down defensively to fuel a 15-0 run while outscoring the Panthers 21-4 overall. Romeo Langford had the first eight on three drives and two free throws before Julien Hunter scored on a feed from East and Derrick Stevenson hit a trey. East added a three and Hunter made a free throw, and the quarter ended with driving baskets by Chris Johnson and a putback from Landon Sprigler, a junior guard who recently became eligible after transferring from Providence. (Interestingly for what lies ahead, the insertion of both Johnson and Sprigler gave New Albany an extra dimension of quickness.)
No. 5 South (26-3) had given visiting New Albany one of its better tests back on Nov. 25 before the Dogs won 70–58. Bloomington South senior Chance Coyle torched the Dogs for 38, something the New Albany coaching staff could hardly forget. On Saturday, Coyle drew plenty of attention and finished with a hard-earned 17, along with effusive praise from New Albany coach Jim Shannon.
“They’ve got so many sets and we hoped to narrow it down to the seven or eight we thought they could really hurt us with and focus on those,” Shannon said, listing all the ways Coyle can score within South’s offense. “We had heavy help on him … I thought he played really well and really hard. We just had too many weapons for them.”
Langford, largely eschewing the three-point shot, scored 28 points, largely on drives and free throws. East scored 11 (including his 1,000th career point) and Stevenson added 8. Shannon was happy with New Albany’s rebounding as Langford grabbed 10, Stevenson and Hunter had eight each and Trey Hourigan added seven.
The afternoon win leads to Saturday’s night’s tilt against unranked Center Grove (20-6), led by 6-9 junior Trayce Jackson-Davis, a smooth lefty and son of former NBA star Dale Davis. The battle of two five-star players — both with red-tinged hair and both major objects of desire for IU coac Archie Miller, who watched from behind the scorer’s table — promises to be tasty.
With IU coach Archie Miller in the house, Davis scored 26 points with 16 rebounds and eight blocked shots. After Center Grove had Evansville North (13-13) under control, he lined up for a free throw and became the object of a comical taunts of “Romeo’s Better!” from the North student section. He took the opportunity to shush the section after flushing one of his several dunks.
“It should be a good game,” Shannon said when asked to size up Center Grove. “They’ve got a nice ball club. They present different problems than most teams because most teams don’t have a 6-10 kid who can play. I don’t know what our strategy will be. We talked about it briefly this week. We did all the groundwork — its all one and my assistant has it all ready to go. But I don’t allow myself to think that far ahead. Like, never. I’ve watched one Center Grove game and he’s watched about 17.”
Bedford North Lawrence fans at the Doghouse.
