CHARLOTTESVILLE — Eastern Hancock thought they might have an advantage on the inside Thursday night against Tri.
They were right.
In search of their first win in two weeks, things started slow for both teams before the Royals forwards took over.
Neither team could find the basket in the first few minutes of the game, as Tri and Eastern Hancock combined to start the game 0 of 7 from the field. After an 0 for 3 start, the Royals went 7 of 9 the rest of the opening quarter, opening up a lead that quickly reached double digits.
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Eastern Hancock’s big men dominated the paint, piling up rebounds and points and making sure the lead kept growing.
The Royals took a 12-point lead into the half and didn’t let up, topping the Titans, 58-36, in a nonconference home game Thursday night.
“What we really wanted tonight was to dominate the paint,” Eastern Hancock coach Aaron Spaulding said. “We thought we had a significant advantage in the paint. Our goal was 20 points in the paint; we had 25. I thought our bigs really did a nice job posting hard, and when they went hard to the basket, they finished well.”
Eastern Hancock’s three starting forwards — Peyton Gray, Brady Smith and Brady Stephens — definitely accomplished the goal of controlling the paint. Gray finished with a double-double. All three had double-digit points, combining to score 46 points and grabbing 21 rebounds, out-rebounding the Titans by themselves.
Gray led the way with 19 points and 10 rebounds, including five offensive boards. He added two emphatic blocks. Smith had 16 points and eight rebounds, and Stephens added 11 points and three boards.
“The good thing about us is we don’t really have one kid who we rely on to score 20, 25 points a game,” Spaulding said. “We’ve got several kids who have the ability to score, get in double digits. We have a rather balanced attack, and that’s what we got tonight.”
Also scoring for the Royals were Cole Rainbolt and Landon O’Neal, with 5 points each, and Skyler Schrope, who added 2 points, five rebounds and three assists.
The Royals out-shot the Titans, making 50 percent of their shots (25 of 50), while the visitors made just 32 percent of their attempts, finishing 14 of 44 from the floor.
Eastern Hancock also dominated the glass, out-rebounding Tri 30 to 17 and nabbing nine offensive rebounds.
Both teams had entered the game on slight losing streaks, with the Royals dropping their last two and Tri seeing their losing skid extend to six games with the loss. Eastern Hancock ended their streak by picking up its sixth straight win against the Titans.
The win moves Eastern Hancock to 8-7 on the year, and, at 3-2 in the Mid-Eastern Conference, they sit in third place with a few weeks remaining in the season.
They take to the road for two games, a Saturday conference matchup against Cowan and a Tuesday clash with Triton Central. They return home Feb. 8 for a game against Morristown.
“Cowan, Saturday, a conference game. Their record is very misleading,” Spaulding said. “Their big kid, who just played the last two games, is 6-foot-10, about 280 (pounds). He makes us look small. They play well. They played Shenandoah really well for a half, and then they beat Wes-Del, who isn’t a bad team at all. We’ve gotta go down there, play well. And then Tuesday we go to Triton Central. We’ve got some tough ones coming up, so we’ve got to keep getting better. What we did last weekend, we played two really good teams. I thought we competed well.
“Now we’ve got to get better so when we do play those really good teams, we give ourselves a decent chance to win the game.”
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Eastern Hancock 58, Tri 36
Tri;8;8;14;6;—;36
EH;16;12;16;14;—;58
Tri (2-12): Zach Smith 3 1-1 8, Dillon Stevens 4 2-4 12, Elijah Davis 3 0-0 6, Kyle Falck 2 0-0 4, Evan Murphy 0 0-0 0, Jimmy Jeffries 1 0-0 2, Logan Stephens 0 0-0 0, Jarod Stevens 1 0-0 2, Cedderek Riggs 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 3-7 36.
EH (8-7): Peyton Gray 9 1-1 19, Landon O’Neal 2 0-0 5, Brady Smith 6 1-2 16, Brady Stephens 5 1-1 11, Skyler Schrope 1 0-0 2, Cole Rainbolt 2 0-0 5, Zach Arnold 0 0-0 0, Connor Shultz 0 0-0 0, Cameron Denis 0 0-0 0. Totals: 25 3-4 58.
3-point goals: Tri 3 (Stevens 2, Smith), EH 5 (Smith 3, O’Neal, Rainbolt). Rebounds: Tri 17 (Davis 5, Stevens 4, Murphy 3, Falck 2, Jeffries, J. Stevens, Riggs), EH 30 (Gray 10, Smith 8, Schrope 5, Rainbolt 3, Stephens 3, Arnold).
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The rest of the Hancock County boys basketball teams were in action Thursday, with Greenfield-Central at home and New Palestine and Mt. Vernon on the road.
Perry Meridian 59, New Palestine 55
Matthew True scored 15 and Maximus Gizzi had 13 in a back-and-forth loss to the Falcons.
Shenandoah 66, Mt. Vernon 64
The Marauders stormed back from a 13-point 4th-quarter deficit but fell just short against the one-loss Raiders.
Delta 74, Greenfield-Central 46
Brady Mundell led the Cougars with 14 points in their final HHC matchup of the season, a loss to the undefeated Eagles.
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