By Cary Stemle
SEYMOUR, INDIANA —When you’re chipping away at a big stone, it helps to have the best chisel.
And New Albany’s Romeo Langford is just a little more battle-tested and determined than Center Grove junior Trayce Jackson-Davis, as it turns out.
In a game New Albany was expected to win, looked like it would win easily, and then needed a late push to put to bed, Langford willed his way to 39 points and set an early tone that kept Jackson-Davis from wreaking complete havoc in Saturday night’s Seymour Regional championship game.
The No. 3 Dogs (25-1) eventually prevailed, 69-56, earning a return trip to the friendly confines of Seymour’s cavernous Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium to take on top-ranked Warren Central at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Barr-Reeve and Morristown face off at 1 p.m. in a Class 1A semi-state matchup.
Jackson-Davis, 6-foot-9 Top 25 junior post player and the son of former NBA star Dale Davis, was as good as advertised, scoring 24 points despite early foul trouble, including a tomahawk dunk off a broken play that electrified the whole gym.
Langford introduced himself to the junior off the bat. After two Julien Hunter baskets pushed New Albany to a 4-1 lead, the Bulldog star drew a charge from Jackson-Davis, then finished a spin move to his left for an and-one and Jackson-Davis’ second foul that sent him to the bench less than three minutes into the game.
Langford quickly followed up with two free throws, a right-corner three-pointer and three more free throws after being fouled behind the arc. After Derrick Stevenson’s steal and bucket pushed New Albany’s lead to 16-3, Center Grove coach Zach Hahn put Jackson-Davis back in the game, and the center’s 15 points helped Center Grove (20-7) pull to within 39-28 at the break.
Langford was at it again early in the third, driving to the right side and suspending in air for an extra second to beat his man before drawing contact from Jackson-Davis, who came over to block the shot and picked up his third foul at the 6:49 mark. Langford’s and-one at 2:06 of the quarter gave New Albany its largest lead at 55-34, and the Dogs opened the fourth quarter in a delay offense.
Center Grove’s traps began causing problems, and a handful of New Albany turnovers and missed shots aided a 10-0 Center Grove run that cut the lead to 60-52 with three minutes left. Fueled by six straight points from Sean East, including a behind-the-back highlight reel layup, New Albany answered with a 9-4 run for the final margin.
“I think fatigue was setting in on my Big 3,” New Albany coach Jim Shannon said, noting the challenges of playing two games in a single day. “Derrick (Stevenson), Sean (East) and Romeo logged a lot of minutes today and I probably should’ve gotten them more rest in the Bloomington South game. But that’s the respect we have for Bloomington South because you never think that game’s over until the final bell.”
Jackson-Davis must have felt like Langford did in last year’s regional final, when a deeper and more talented Castle team bounced New Albany despite Langford’s 44 points. Even with his foul trouble, Jackson-Davis was a load on both ends — New Albany’s bigs, 6-foot-5 Trey Hourigan and 6-foot-3 Hunter, each fouled out, and the Center Grove star bothered Langford’s shot on several occasions. But the New Albany senior is stronger than he was a year ago and adept at retrieving his own misses. He kept scoring the ball in traffic throughout the game.
“(Jackson-Davis) likes to go over his right shoulder; everybody knows that, so we wanted our guy to guard him there and we wanted the help to come from the other shoulder,” Shannon said. “Sometimes we did that and sometimes we didn’t … I told the guys at half, whatever we’re doing ain’t working because he’s got 58 percent of their points and he’s gonna end up with 32.”
East finished with 13 points, Hunter had six, and Stevenson and Hourigan added five apiece.
And now, only four Class 4A teams are left standing. New Albany, having defeated No 4 Floyd Central and No. 5 Bloomington South, will take on No. 1 Warren Central (30-0) for the right to face the South Bend Riley-Carmel winner in the state championship game.
First things first. The Dogs’ own personal Mount Rushmore is halfway carved, but the third face looks to be a whole other vein of hard rock.
“They’re really good,” Shannon said of Warren Central. “I know they’re really quick and athletic. It’ll be fun to play a team that’s quick and athletic — we’ve played some really great teams, but we have not played a team out of the city for a while. Princeton was probably the last team we played that was really quick and can get after you. It’s been a while, and we look forward to it …”
And then Shannon, sucking on a throat lozenge and thinking about cough syrup and a good night’s sleep, laughed and added a caveat: “I think …”
