FOR THE DAILY REPORTER
Addison True’s basket with six seconds remaining gave Eastern Hancock a stunning come-from-behind win against host Edinburgh Tuesday evening in Mid-Hoosier Conference action.
The 51-49 victory snapped a three-game losing streak for the Royals. And it was a game of runs and errors.
“This was a good win for us,” Eastern Hancock coach Aaron Spaulding said. “We played some decent basketball, but we’ve been playing some good basketball lately against some good teams. I’m proud of the guys for coming back.”
Helping the Royals was the fact they were in this position before — trailing in the fourth quarter. It happened against Greenfield-Central in January, and they came back and won.
The experience from that win certainly helped. But it wasn’t easy.
Eastern Hancock (9-11, 3-5 MHC) turned over the ball 20 times and gave the Lancers plenty of chances to win it.
Edinburgh (11-9, 3-4 MHC) for its part could trace its downfall to the second quarter. It was here the Lancers could only connect on three baskets out of 15 tries, most of them botched layup attempts or misfires from short range.
Missing free throws didn’t help, either.
“That hurt,” Edinburgh coach Drew Glentzer said. “We were 7 of 17. We shoot 50 percent, we probably win the game.”
That’s where the Royals took advantage.
After an 11-11 first quarter, Eastern Hancock outscored the Lancers 14-6 and appeared to control the beginning of the third quarter. That’s when the Lancers went on their run and the Royals came to a stop.
“This was a game of runs,” Spaulding said. “We would get ours, and they would make theirs. I was disappointed with the turnovers we made, and we were out-rebounded. (Edinburgh) has some explosive scorers, and you can’t do that against them.”
The Lancers led 36-32 entering the fourth quarter. In the quarter, the Royals proved how explosive they could be as True hit three consecutive 3-pointers, and both senior Derrik Noel and junior Ryan Speas also hit 3’s.
That’s when the freshman True showed the poise of a veteran with his shot.
True led all scorers with 19 points. Noel added 13. Leading Edinburgh was Matt Heagy’s 13 points.
