Basketball is a simple game. More often than not, statistics will reveal who came out on top in any given contest.
Case in point: Find a way to take substantially more shots than the other team (and make a reasonable percentage of those), and you probably win.
Which largely explains the result of Friday’s annual rivalry game between Floyd Central and New Albany:
Highlanders 52, Bulldogs 48.
The Dogs (1-2) shot a better percentage — 20 for 35 overall for 57.1% — but Floyd (6-0) got off nine more shots, making 20 of 44 (45.5%).
“That was the difference in the ball game,” New Albany coach Jim Shannon said, eyeballing the game stats on an iPad. “That and offensive rebounding — we had them for nine, and we had two. If you give the other team nine more shots than you get, there’s your four-point game.”
Playing on Floyd’s home court, New Albany came out on fire. Kaden Stanton hit two threes and a two, and Trey Hourigan, making his season debut, had a pair of deuces for a 13-4 lead. Floyd called time out at 2:38, then righted the ship behind threes from Ben Purvis and Grant Gohmann and a bucket by Jake Heidbreder. New Albany led 15-12 at the quarter break.
The Dogs retained a 25-21 halftime lead after a back-and-forth second quarter, and the Highlanders clawed their way into a tie at 33 after Gohmann’s three-point play with 3:20 left in the third. Stanton scored for a 35-33 lead. Heidbreder answered with a drive, and Cole Harritt’s three gave Floyd its first lead at the 1:12 mark, 38-35.
After Tucker Biven scored for New Albany, Harritt scored again from distance and Floyd led 41-37 after three quarters.
Heidbreder found his footing after a slow first half in which he shot 1-for-10 from the field. Eschewing the long ball, the 6-4 junior guard began attacking the rim and scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half. After Biven’s bucket drew the Dogs within a point at 43-42, Heidbreder had back-to-back baskets to make it 47-42. New Albany could get no closer than four points down the stretch.
“We kinda let Heidbreder take over the game,” Shannon said. “At the end, he got loose on us quite a bit. He wasn’t really hitting from 3 — we held him there. But man, when he goes inside, he’s good. He’s very skilled, and he makes you have to help off and then he finds open kids.”
The game lived up to its rivalry status. Floyd’s gym was full (including plenty of Bulldog faithful), and pulsated with energy all night thanks to the snappy Highlanders pep band and a student section packed with boisterous high-schoolers all dressed in white.
The competition on the floor was intense but clean — the game’s first foul came at the 6:17 mark of the second quarter, and neither team experienced anything like foul trouble. Turnovers were low — New Albany had seven and Floyd only three.
Floyd’s defense clearly focused on stopping Biven, who came in averaging 28 points per game. The sophomore only attempted one shot in the first quarter but eventually found his spots and finished with 13 points. Hourigan led New Albany with 15 points, and Stanton also had 13. New Albany’s only other senior, Julien Hunter, remains sidelined with a stress fracture in his foot. He’s expected to return before the end of 2019.
“(Biven) finally got going,” Shannon said. “They were trying to be physical with him and keeping him from getting the ball. I thought he played through that pretty well for a sophomore.”
The Highlanders, who lost the core of their Top 5 team from a season ago, have reloaded with skilled underclassmen. Only Heidbreder saw meaningful minutes last year.
After a long stretch of New Albany dominance, equilibrium has returned to the series. Floyd won at home during the regular season in 2017, knocking Romeo Langford’s squad from its No. 1 ranking. The Bulldogs gained revenge in the sectional.
The same sequence occurred a year ago — Floyd winning at New Albany in December, then suffering the major upset at Seymour on Derek Stevenson’s buzzer-beating three.
Shannon, of course, is hoping for a three-peat — assuming one or the other team doesn’t end up drawing Jeffersonville first.
“It was a great high school game. Both teams competed and played hard. It’s just one of those things,” Shannon said. “A four-point game against a really good team on the road, that’s not all that bad. Next time we play ’em. it won’t be here. That’s what we’ve gotta hope for. “
New Albany plays host to Zionsville on Saturday night. Floyd is off and travels to Providence on Dec. 20.
