CHARLOTTESVILLE — Eastern Hancock got a spark from its bench in its boys basketball opener against visiting Centerville Wednesday.
You could call it the “Powers” surges it needed.
Sophomore guard Caden Powers, in his first-ever varsity game, hit 5 of 6 3-pointers and led all scorers with 20 points in the Royals 61-51 victory over the Bulldogs.
Powers was called on twice for a little extra voltage for the Royals.
Down 7-2 in the first quarter, Powers entered the game and had his own 8-2 run to give Eastern Hancock a 10-9 lead at the break.
“That was huge,” first-year Eastern Hancock head coach Brett Bechtel said. “We were kind of stuck there at 7-2 and he comes in off the bench. That’s who he is, he can really shoot it. We talked about against their 1-3-1 (zone) that the extended elbow slot area would be open and he needed to step up and be aggressive and shoot it. He made some huge shots.
“From there, I think it lifted a weight off our shoulders. We took a deep breath and started settling in and playing. We were down 7-2 and a little unsure. We got a few to go and got a little momentum, started rebounding, that was a huge lift off the bench, huge.”
The lead grew to 10 by halftime, 29-19. Six different Royals scored in the second quarter. Senior Caiden Willis scored all eight of his first-half points. He had a three-point play to break a 16-16 tie to start a 13-3 run.
Luke Schilling and Powers each hit treys during the spurt. Eastern Hancock scored 11 straight before a 3-pointer from the Bulldogs’ Trevor Thornburg. Luke Morris hit a pair of free throws to close out the first half.
Centerville opened the second half with a 13-0 run. The Royals were scoreless for nearly five minutes of the third quarter until Powers re-entered and quickly hit a game-tying 3. He and Schilling put on a shooting clinic the rest of the quarter to help get the lead back to 41-37 heading to the fourth period.
Powers tied it at the 3:10 mark and a Schilling trey gave EH the lead just 36 seconds later. Centerville tied it again with a 3 from Landyn Keiser — just seven seconds after Schilling’s bucket.
The Bulldog faithful hardly had time to get back in their seats before a Schilling 3-pointer gave the lead back to the Royals, 38-35 at the 2:00 mark. Powers hit his last trey with 55 seconds left in the quarter for the last points prior to the final eight minutes.
“That’s a toughness thing, poise and composure,” Bechtel said of the shooting display from Powers and Schilling and his team turning the momentum around in their favor. “We knew (Centerville is) good enough and going to make a run and we’re just going to have to fight through it. You’re going to have to get stops and quality shots.
“Obviously, putting the ball in the basket is going to help anything, but we were able to gather ourselves, get a few stops. Those guys made some shots, and we got the momentum back. I thought the first two-to-three minutes of third quarter would be key on how the second half would go. …. They go on a big run, those guys made those shots, and I just thought we didn’t panic. We showed some poise and composure. We didn’t panic, we just settled in and kept playing and it worked out.”
In the fourth quarter, the Royals worked their way to the free-throw line and hit 12 of 18 (66.7 percent) tries to close out the win.
They were 20 of 33 (60.6 percent) at the line for the game. Centerville had just five charity-stripe attempts and hit four (80 percent).
A long-time assistant to long-time head coach Aaron Spaulding, Bechtel’s victory was his first as a head coach. He took over for Spaulding this season after the veteran coach stepped down to concentrate on athletic director duties. Along with the coach, the majority of last year’s scoring and varsity minutes graduated, too. Four starters who logged most of the minutes graduated, including Spaulding’s twin sons Jacob and Silas, along with Edric Miller and Grant Gray.
“Our big emphasis is offensive rebounding and transition and getting to the free-throw line. We got to the free-throw line 33 times, that’s what we want to do,” Bechtel added. “It’s not going to be real pretty basketball like it has been the last few years. It’s not going to be, that’s not who we are. That’s fine, we’re going to have to win ugly. That’s fine and that’s what we did.”
Following Powers, Willis scored 12. Schilling had 11 and hit 3 of 5 from 3-point range. Morris,the first player off the bench last season, had eight, hitting 8 of 10 at the free-throw line. Kayden Ruble, the only returning starter, had seven points and 10 rebounds.
Thornburg led Centerville with 17. Shea Hollendonner scored 17 and Keiser had 10.
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Eastern Hancock 61, Centerville 51
Centerville;9;10;18;14;—;51
Eastern Hancock;10;19;12;20;—;61
Centerville (0-1): Shea Hollendonner 6 3-3 16, Trevor Thornburg 7 0-0 17, Nate Dickenson 0 0-0 0, Landyn Keiser 3 1-2 10, Ethan Vecera 3 0-0 6, Kaden McCord 0 0-0 0, Daniel Williams 0 0-0 0, Bryson Brown 0 0-0 0, Joe Martin 1 0-0 2, Keith Plyly. Totals: 20 4-5 51.
Eastern Hancock (1-0): Caiden Willis 3 5-7 12, Luke Schilling 4 0-0 11, Kayden Ruble 2 3-10 7, Luke Morris 0 8-10 8, Charlie Halcomb 1 0-0 2, Eli Manship 0 0-0 0, Caden Powers 6 3-4 20, Garrett Shaw 0 1-2 1. Totals: 16 20-33 61.
3-point goals: Centerville 7 (Thornburg 3, Keiser 3, Hollendonner), Eastern Hancock 9 (Powers 5, Schilling 3, Willis)
