New Albany’s Maddox Schmelz breaks open to receive an assist from Julien Hunter. Schmelz scored six points in New Albany’s 56-43 win at Jennings County on Thursday.
NORTH VERNON, INDIANA — The last time New Albany traveled to Jennings County, on a snowy Thursday night in early February 2018, Romeo Langford lit up the scoreboard for 63 points and the candy-stripe-clad Panther faithful fell all over themselves pleading with him to sign with IU.
The Dogs altogether couldn’t quite match Langford’s output last night, but they had more than enough to outlast the hosts, 56-43.
New Albany’s Kaden Stanton scored a game-high 16 points, while Trey Hourigan and Julien Hunter added 13 and 11, respectively. Tucker Biven scored nine, and Maddox Schmelz, a defensive specialist who rarely shoots, added six key points.
Carson McNulty led Jennings with 14 points, including 4-of-9 from deep (and a near miss from his own foul line at the end of the second quarter).
With unnecessary shots, missed free throws, turnovers and poor clock management, this year’s Dogs have struggled to close out quarters, halves and games. The tendency contributed to a too-close-for-comfort overtime win over Seymour at home, as well as last Friday’s home loss to Evansville North on a buzzer-beating three. New Albany led by 10 points with four minutes left in that game.
Those issues were again evident last night as Jennings cut New Albany’s 17-point lead to 50-43, with 6:02 left to play. This time, however, the Dogs righted the ship and held the Panthers scoreless for the rest of the game.
Standing just inside the visitors locker room where he raved about Langford’s outburst two years ago, New Albany coach Jim Shannon was all smiles — and delighted to get out of town with the win. Jennings County (10-8, 1-4) had lost only one game at home, recently beat Hoosier Hills Conference co-leader Bedford North Lawrence, and lost by 3 in overtime at Floyd Central.
“They’re a good team with a winning record and capable of beating anybody,” Shannon said. “They’re shooting a tremendous percentage from three-point range — 38 to 40 percent on the year. Lights out. They’ve got good shooters, and you don’t want to give them those set shots. Other than (McNulty), we did a really nice job.”
New Albany held Jennings to 16-of-48 shooting overall (33 percent), including 5-of-21 from distance. The Dogs enjoyed a strong shooting night, making 13-of-22 from two-point range, 6-of-17 from distance, and 12-of-15 from the free-throw line.
Shannon praised his entire rotation — starting with Stanton, who hit 4-of-6 from to help stake the Dogs to a 30-18 halftime lead.
“I thought Special K in the first half was unbelievable. He was hitting shots. In the second half he played good, but in the first half he was unstoppable,” Shannon said. “I thought our three bigs played really well. Julien, Jordan (Thomas) and Trey spelled each other, and they all did a nice job. We threw over the top, and they rebounded well.
“Tucker played hard like he always does. Schmelz did a great job — he hit the offensive boards and got some points. He played his guts out on defense like he always does. I put him on two people — he started on the point guard (name) and then he was on (name), who was hitting all the threes.
“He couldn’t understand what I was telling him. I told him not to leave him. We’re not helping, we’re not getting off, we’re just face-guarding and not leaving. Our kids are supposed to help so much that when you tell them not to help, it’s real hard for them. In practice we’re always harping on helping. But you can’t help off a guy who’s on fire.”
New Albany (11-7, 3-2) is back in action on Saturday afternoon when HHC rival Columbus East (3-14, 0-3) visits the Doghouse. Tipoff is at 2 p.m. New Albany’s 1980 team, which advanced to the state finals en route to a 27-1 season record, will be honored during the game.
