KNIGHTSTOWN — The crowd was thinner than past years on Friday night, but the Eastern Hancock Royals’ offense proved hefty against archrival Knightstown.
A day after the junior varsity teams won a pair from the Panthers, the Royals’ boys and girls varsity basketball teams followed suit during their doubleheader with a sweep in the annual showdown.
The Eastern Hancock girls opened Friday night with a decisive 65-14 victory, and the Royals’ boys closed it out with a 60-34 win.
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“I was taught really quick when I got the job at Eastern Hancock (in 2015) by Dave Pfaff (the superintendent) that the one school you absolutely could lose your job over if you get beat by them is Knightstown,” EH girls coach Shari Doud laughed. “You learn, this is a rivalry, and it’s a big deal between the two neighboring schools.”
Job security was locked down all around as the Royals’ girls defeated Knightstown (1-7) for a sixth consecutive year to increase their series lead 13-10 in the past 15 years.
The EH boys won their second straight against the Panthers and 26th overall in the past 36 years.
“In this game, no matter what the records are or who is playing, it usually ends up real tight, so I was glad to see that we did a good job in the second half to kind of finish what we started in the first half,” EH boys head coach Aaron Spaulding said. “It’s always good to beat Knightstown, and I especially liked the way we did it tonight.”
The Royals’ girls wasted little time in their game, establishing an 11-2 lead after the first quarter and a 35-6 advantage by halftime.
Eastern Hancock hadn’t played a game since traveling to North Decatur nearly 10 days ago due to COVID-19 quarantine cancellations by their scheduled opponents since Dec. 9.
The Royals (8-3) hardly showed any rust, though.
Grace Stapleton led the Royals with 20 points and her sister Caroline added 14 points as Eastern Hancock ran out to a 50-plus point lead by the second half.
The Royals’ largest margin of the night reached 54 points late in the fourth quarter with their starters on the bench.
“I think we did a good job of bringing the energy,” Grace Stapleton said. “This is a really important game for us. It’s a rivalry game. It’s a big game to win for us. All week, we’ve been talking about this game, so it’s important that we all show out and get a good win.”
A 16-1 run to open the second quarter allowed the Royals to set the tone on defense where they generated several scoring chances off Knightstown turnovers.
Grace Stapleton posted four steals and uncontested buckets for eight of her nine third-quarter points during a 17-1 run in the frame.
“Halftime on, I think we did a much better job of just getting in position to play defense and letting the other team make their own mistakes because you don’t always have to take it from them,” Doud said. “Sometimes, clean defensive pressure will be enough.”
Eastern Hancock played 14 players in the game with all but three scoring at least a point. Liv Hancock had nine points as a reserve, Emma Bolding had six points and both Chloe O’Neal and Sammie Bolding finished with four points apiece.
The Royals’ boys faced minimal resistance after a 16-4 run that started with 2 minutes, 39 seconds remaining in the first quarter and ended with 4:19 left in the first half.
Down 8-7 before the Royals’ found their rhythm, Knightstown (0-2) trailed quickly as its offense fell silent for a majority of a 6:20 span in the first and second quarters.
The Royals’ lead grew to 20-plus points after pulling ahead 35-15 at halftime.
Silas Spaulding paced the Royals with 16 points, including four 3-pointers, and Landon O’Neal added 12 points with a pair of 3-pointers.
Cameron Wise contributed seven points on 3 of 5 shooting as a reserve player, and Zach Arnold had six points. Jacob Spaulding finished with six points.
Every Royals’ player that logged minutes chipped in at least two points with Cole Rainbolt and Edric Miller both supplying four points each.
The Royals’ largest lead reached 26 points off an O’Neal jumper with 6:32 remaining and ended at the same mark with a Miller bucket on EH’s second to last possession.
“This is really big. Finishing was a big emphasis for us tonight, and we did that really well,” O’Neal said. “Now, we have to go out tomorrow and get two wins, JV and varsity, and coach Spaulding gets his pizza.”
The unbeaten Royals (3-0) return home tonight for their first back-to-back weekend this season with Cambridge City Lincoln coming to Charlottesville.
The Royals’ girls travel to Cambridge City Lincoln on Tuesday and then host Winchester on Dec. 29.
