CHARLOTTESVILLE — When the jump shots don’t fall, the Eastern Hancock girls basketball team will usually go up-tempo. When that doesn’t work, the next move is pressure defense and finding a way to create fast-break opportunities.
On Tuesday night, none of it panned out unfortunately as the Royals endured a frustrating shooting night and lost to North Decatur 47-43.
“That was definitely our worst percentage night of the season, and you’re going to have nights like that, and that’s where you hope to rely on your defense, but we gave them too many easy looks,” Royals head coach Shari Doud said. “The defense wasn’t our equalizer.”
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The Royals (7-3) entered the night 5-0 at home and on a three-game winning streak, but North Decatur built an early six-point lead in the first half. The Royals were shooting 40 percent from the field on the season. Against the Chargers (5-5) they were at 36 percent and hovered at 29 percent in the first half.
“We do like to put the ball on the floor and go, but sometimes we think we have to hurry and take a shot because we’re an up-tempo team, but the kids need to learn when it’s time to be patient and not feel like they need to rush,” Doud said. “We took a lot of our offensive possessions away with turnovers.”
Down 24-22 by halftime, the deficit grew to nine points by the start of the fourth quarter behind a 7-0 run from the Chargers to end the third.
Jenna Geis led North Decatur with 16 points, and Morgan Stanley followed with 14 points, while Sidney Parmer hauled in eight of the Chargers’ 20 defensive rebounds.
The Royals outside shooting failed them through the first three quarters as the team buried 1-of-15 attempts before going on a run late from deep.
Facing a pair of 12-point deficits in the fourth quarter, Chloe O’Neal kept the Royals close with a team-high 16 points, and Jocelyn Duncan found her shot with three 3-pointers in the final 16 minutes.
Duncan was averaging 16.7 points per game, and O’Neal was second-best at 9.7 a night.
A 28-percent shooting group from beyond the arc, Eastern Hancock finished 4-of-18 from long range, but once they rediscovered their range, it keyed a charge in the final 1 minute and 8 seconds.
“Chloe is a really good mid-range scorer for us. She’s got a good basketball motor,” Doud said.
O’Neal went 6-for-13 from the floor and the junior was 4-of-5 from the free-throw line. Aly Spaulding added six points with five coming in the second half and grabbed seven rebounds. Caroline Stapleton had six points with three rebounds.
The Royals forced 20 North Decatur turnovers and recorded nearly 30 rebounds, but the shots didn’t fall until a 9-1 run in the fourth quarter as Duncan and Spaulding combined for a trio of 3-pointers.
“We’ve had a good amount of wins. We’ve had several games that I call 50-50 games in a row, and we won three of those. Tonight was another 50-50 game for us, and we lost,” Doud said. “That’s when you go into the locker room and say, ‘ok, what could have we done different if we had to play again tomorrow? You ask how the outcome would be different, if we made those adjustments. You learn as you go, wins or losses.”
The Royals are back at home on Thursday when they host Cambridge City Lincoln at 7:30 p.m. The Golden Eagles were 1-6 entering Tuesday night and opened their season at 0-6. The Royals ran past Cambridge City Lincoln last year 56-28 and own a two-game winning streak against the Golden Eagles.
