CHARLOTTESVILLE — Mark one down for small town Indiana.
It couldn’t have happened at a better time.
In a big confidence booster heading into next week’s sectional, Class 2A Eastern Hancock defeated Class 4A Pendleton Heights, 58-56 in double overtime, at Eastern Hancock High School, Tuesday.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Sophomore Landon O’Neal scored — on a 10-foot floater in the lane — with just 10 seconds left in the second extra session and the Royals’ defense made a key stop late to preserve the team’s 12th win of the season.
Freshman Jacob Spaulding, son of Royals’ head coach Aaron Spaulding, went end-to-end with 3.6 seconds left in the first overtime and scored just before the buzzer to force the second extra period.
“We’ve been working a lot on four-minute games, so overtime works out perfectly for us to capitalize,” O’Neal said. “Each game we want to win the first four minutes, second four minutes, third four minutes, two each quarter and that’s just what overtime is.”
O’Neal is the Royals’ leading scorer, averaging 15.7 points per game. He led in scoring Tuesday with 14, 10 came in the fourth quarter and overtimes. He had seven of the team’s 10 points in the second bonus period.
“This is a big, big, big win,” O’Neal said. “(Pendleton Heights) is the only 70-plus (70.1) Sagarin Rating team we have beaten this year. We have to go into sectional play and play a good Northeastern team and they’re a 68 (in Sagarin). That just shows how we can compete against bigger and better teams.”
The Royals didn’t win the opening four-minute game, but they proved to be a handful for the large-school Arabians the rest of the way. Pendleton Heights scored the game’s first eight points. Eastern Hancock’s first points were two free throws from Jacob Spaulding with 2:05 left in the quarter. Three-pointers by Cole Rainbolt and Drew White tied the game, 8-8, heading into the second.
Eastern Hancock had the last points of the fourth quarter and both overtimes. A Rainbolt bucket off a missed free throw by Cyrus Burton tied the game 43-43 with one minute remaining in regulation. It was the last points by either team until overtime.
“We’ve been talking all year that we need to get used to beating somebody good,” coach Spaulding said of his club, which starts four sophomores and brings two freshman off the bench. “What it was, was a team effort. I can’t say it was one person that got the job done. A lot of our kids made great plays, a team-win all the way through.”
Rainbolt and Zach Arnold scored 10 points each. Jacob Spaulding had eight. Juniors Cameron Wise and White scored six points apiece. Senior Brady Smith had four points.
Pendleton Heights was led by brothers Tristan Ross and Ethan Ross with 16 points apiece. Kamden Earley had 10 points.
The Arabians dropped their seventh straight game and fell to 8-15. It was their final regular season game before taking on Muncie Central on Wednesday, March 4, in an opening round game of Class 4A Sectional 9, hosted by Muncie Central.
Eastern Hancock has one final regular-season game, a home contest Friday against Hagerstown before beginning play in Class 2A Sectional 41, hosted by Hagerstown.
“This give us a lot of confidence that we can beat a team of this caliber,” coach Spaulding said. “It was a good atmosphere tonight and this gives us a lot of confidence going into sectional. We’re looking forward to it.”
The Royals are slated to open tournament action Tuesday, March 3, against Northeastern, a team they lost to in December. Northeastern is 16-6 on the year.
Eastern Hancock has won six of its last eight games, with one of the losses being an overtime decision at Blue River Valley.
Tuesday’s contest was the first for the Royals against an opponent than wasn’t in either Class A or Class 2A.
Tuesday’s matchup was the first between the schools since 1995, prior to class basketball. Pendleton Heights won that game, 56-43.
In fact, according to records on John Harrell’s Indiana Boys’ Basketball web site, which date back 35 years, Tuesday’s win was Eastern Hancock’s first over Pendleton Heights during that span of time. The Arabians had held a 7-0 advantage.
