CHARLOTTESVILLE – The Eastern Hancock Royals are off to a flying start. With a 60-44 win against visiting Northeastern, the Royals improved to 4-0 on the young season, with room to improve still on their minds.
“We’ve won some games so far this year that’s correct,” Royals coach Aaron Spaulding said afterwards in the locker room. “But what I like to see is that we’re getting better and I think we can be better.”
From the opening tip, the Royals seemed to be the sharper squad, racing to a 14-7 lead at the end of the first quarter and holding a five-point halftime lead. With 24 points at halftime, the Royals had spread their scoring evenly and held the Knights to just 19.
At the start of the second half, the Royals began to assert themselves, beginning the quarter on a 10-0 run that would effectively put the game away.
“We changed some things defensively at halftime,” Spaulding said. “We were giving up the short corner too often and so we switched up how we were playing our zone, and that allowed us to open up the game.”
Leading the way for the Royals was senior guard Addison True. Scoring 16 of his 22 points in the second half, True attacked the basket relentlessly and found open teammates because of it. The Royals would hit eight three-point shots on the night, with senior guard Tyler Castle calmly draining three of those.
“Tonight was our best game of the year in terms of how well we played physically and mentally,” Spaulding said. “Now we just have to focus on improving and see what happens.”
The Royals have a quick turnaround, as they travel to take on Randolph Southern tonight for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.
