2020 couldn’t get here fast enough for New Albany coach Jim Shannon.
Not that 2019 was so bad for his young Bulldog squad. Just a little tough.
There were good wins — on the road against Carmel and at home over Zionsville, both ranked at the time — and an overtime heartbreaker at No. 8 Floyd Central.
There were convincing defeats — at No. 2 Bloomington South to open the season, and to Crown Point (54-62) and No. 13 Columbus North (30-48) in the Noblesville holiday tournament.
There was the Evansville Harrison blowout and the too-close overtime victory over Seymour, both at the Doghouse. The year ended with a redemption win over Andrean in the Noblesville tourney finale.
More pressing, however, there was no Julien Hunter. That left three sophomores, a junior and a senior in the starting lineup, with only a couple of underclassmen ready to contribute off the bench. The team’s collective confidence was at risk.
And yet the Dogs rambled into the new year at a respectable 6-4.
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On Saturday night, we figured to get a glimpse of New Albany’s real squad as they traveled out State Road 64 to take on an upstart North Harrison team. Led by skilled 6-11 junior Langdon Hatton, the 6-2 Cougars are ranked No. 13 in 3A and lost by eight points to defending 3A champs Silver Creek, ranked No. 1 in their class this year.
North kept things close early and trailed only 30-25 at the half. But the Dogs ratcheted up their defensive pressure in the third quarter and outscored the Cougars 23-8 en route to a 67-47 win.
Sophomore guard Kaden Stanton buried three long balls and also got to the rim all night to lead New Albany with 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting. Senior forward Trey Hourigan scored 16, and sophomore guard Tucker Biven added 11. Junior center Jordan Thomas came off the bench for eight points, including a tasty dunk off a dish from Stanton during garbage time.
The biggest news of the night, of course, was the return of Hunter. His stat line was a modest four points and six rebounds in 22 minutes — but his presence was huge. He outjumped Hatton to gain the opening tip and largely neutralized North’s big junior on defense.
“I thought Julien had a great debut,” Shannon said. “He’s not in shape, at all, but just his presence builds all of our confidence — mine, the staff, the kids. I could just tell. When he walks out there, it’s just different. … Defensively, he bothered some people early in the game. Offensively, he made some nice passes and got good rebounds. Overall I thought he had a great game.”
New Albany’s game plan called for pressuring North’s freshmen guards, and the game turned when the Dogs picked up full court after halftime.
“We knew if they got into their half court sets and their high-low action,” Shannon said, “it would shake (sophomore swingman Logan McIntire) loose. He’s a dead 3, doesn’t miss. We knew if they were able to do those kinds of things it would be a game, and it was a good game, a close game early.
“I thought our pressure we put on in the first half kinda wore them down. … By and large we tried to take them out of what they wanted to as best we can by exploiting their weakness, which is their guard play. We felt like we had superior quickness, so we tried to pick them up. We thought we did a good job in that area.”
Braden Jenkins, a 6-5 senior forward, led North with 17 points, including 9-of-10 from the foul line. Hatton fought hard for his 15 points.
“We were trying to push him out on the floor best we could,” Shannon said. “We knew once he got to rim — we saw him dunk twice in the Silver Creek game, and they’ve got Kaufman who’s 6-8ish and Jacobi, who’s 6-6, and he was getting between them. We’re not that big, so we wanted to have somebody in front and somebody behind him all the time. Sometimes we succeeded and sometimes we did not.”
Shannon said Hunter’s return gives New Albany a solid rotation for the first time all season.
“Now we can bring Jordan in to rest him. Charlie (Carr) can come in and rest all the bigs. Jackson Streander can come in and rest (Maddox) Schmelz, Kaden or Tucker. So we’ve got a legit eight guys now we can go to, so you can get out and pressure a little more because you can rest guys.
“I thought we shared the ball nicely tonight. It moved around. We got a lot more assists than usual. We missed some easy shots, too. Boy, when those start falling, that’s when I think we’re gonna be really, really good.”
Asked to assign his team a letter grade for 2019, Shannon laughed.
“At 6-4, I’m not grading any higher than average,” he said. “It’s a new year, so we’re 1-0 and we’ve got Juju back, and we’re happy. We’ve got to keep going and get ready for Jeff (on Friday).”
