New Albany coach Jim Shannon said the right thing after the Bulldogs let a winnable home game slip away Friday night.
Let it go. Move on.
On Saturday, after New Albany beat Jasper 59-42 at the Doghouse, Shannon admitted he’s not so great at heeding his own advice.
“A lot of guys will just say just forget it, take that tape and throw it in the trash,” he said. “I’ve done that before, but quite frankly, I haven’t done it very often because it’s hard for me to let things go. I didn’t really let that loss go from last night till about two minutes to go in this game. I couldn’t get it off my mind, how we didn’t finish and play hard and smart and take care of the ball. ”
New Albany’s Trey Hourigan found his shooting eye against Jasper, nailing four of seven three-pointers and leading all scorers with 18 points. Friday night against Evansville North, it was Hourigan’s man who shook loose for the game-winning three.
“I’m glad to hear that,” Shannon said of the senior’s stat line, which included 11 rebounds. “I need to go in (the locker room) and brag on him, because I was pretty hard on him yesterday.”
Jasper came in at 12-2, with three victories over 4A schools, including a 58-41 defeat of Evansville North on Jan. 4. As they did on Friday, the Dogs came out sharp and led 16-9 after one quarter. This time, however, New Albany avoided the Friday lulls. Kaden Stanton made 3 of 7 threes and added 12 points for New Albany. Julien Hunter also had 12, and Tucker Biven scored 8.
New Albany shot 8 of 17 from distance against Jasper, compared with 3 of 13 on Friday.
“That’s 15 more points — that’s your story,” Shannon said. “We got a little complacent (Friday) night. Tonight I felt like we moved the ball around a lot more. When somebody steps out and makes shots, that makes a big difference. … All in all, I thought it as a good bounce-back game for us.”
Asked how to ensure consistency from a high school basketball team, Shannon chuckled.
“If I knew, I’d bottle it and make a lot of money. Even though I’ve coached a long time, I don’t really know what the answer is,” he said. “I think sometimes kids are in rhythm, their biorhythms are up and they’re feeling good, and they’re playing well and they’re meshing and carrying out what you want them to do for the most part. Other nights they just don’t.
“If you’re really talented, you can get away with some stuff and still win, like we did there for a while. We could just show up and beat people whether we were executing or playing good defense. Some of the kids we had in the past could just cover those mistakes up. Kids we have now are good basketball players, but we’ve got to minimize our mistakes. We’re not so good that we can just show up out here and out-talent people when we’re playing Jeffersonville and Floyd Central and Bloomington South and Silver Creek, and the list goes on and on and on.
“We don’t have the most talent. Not anymore, not right now. But we have enough talent to beat those teams, we really do, so we’re not saying we don’t. We’re just saying we can’t go out and just not show up not execute. …. I heard on one of the Kobe specials they ran this week, he was talking about execution. … There’s not a better word in basketball terminology than execute.”
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New Albany’s next two games are against Hoosier Hills Conference rivals. The Dogs travel to Jennings County on Thursday night, then play host to Columbus East on Saturday afternoon.
Jeff, Floyd and Bedford North Lawrence are tied for the conference lead with 4-1 records. Shannon acknowledged that winning the conference looks unlikely, but he thinks a strong top 3 finish is plausible.
Jeff’s remaining conference games are at Jennings County and at home against Madison. For Floyd, it’s Bedford and Columbus East, both at home. Bedford looks to have the toughest test, with games at Floyd and New Albany.
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New Albany will honor its 1980 team during the Columbus East game on Saturday afternoon at the Doghouse. Led by David Bennett, Phil Benninger and Richie Johnson, those Bulldogs advanced to the state championship game, where they dropped a 73-66 decision to Indianapolis Broad Ripple to finish the season at 27-1.
Tip-off is at 2 p.m.
