CHARLOTTESVILLE — Experience spoke volumes at Eastern Hancock Friday night.
The Royals can attest to that.
Youthful Eastern Hancock was no match for veteran-heavy Wapahani in the Mid-Eastern Conference boys’ basketball matchup at the Royals’ gym.
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A 3-point field goal from senior Brady Smith gave Eastern a brief 3-2 lead, but it was all Raiders the rest of the way.
Wapahani followed the Smith trey with a 19-0 run and went on to a convincing 59-25 victory.
It was the Royals first MEC loss of the season. Eastern Hancock is 5-4 overall and 3-1 in the conference. Wapahani is 8-2 on the season and 1-2 in the MEC.
“Wapahani is an awfully good veteran team,” Eastern Hancock coach Aaron Spaulding said. “At this point, they’re the opposite of us. We’re young, especially at the perimeter spot where they are very veteran. That showed tonight.”
Wapahani started four seniors and one junior. Eastern Hancock countered with three sophomores, a junior and one senior. The first three Royals off the bench on Friday were two freshmen and a sophomore.
“We showed a lot of togetherness,” Wapahani coach Matt Luce said. “These are guys I’ve coached since first grade. We have a lot of trust in each other and believe in each other.
“We’ve got five guys that have played a lot of varsity minutes. I would expect (Eastern Hancock), in one or two years, to have a lot of the same experience that we do.”
The veteran perimeter players that both coaches talked about set the tone for the game.
Wapahani hit six of its first eight 3-point field goal attempts. The sixth make from long range, by senior guard Drew Luce, gave the Raiders a 27-5 lead with still 7:10 remaining in the first half.
The Royals made a run of their own in the second quarter. Down 31-5, Eastern Hancock finished the second quarter outscoring Wapahani 11-2.
Junior Cameron Wise sparked the Royals off the bench with a pair of 3-pointers. When junior Drew White scored off an offensive rebound, the Royals had cut the deficit at halftime to 33-16.
Eastern was unable to carry that momentum into the third period. Wapahani scored nine of the first 10 points of the second half.
“That was huge,” coach Luce said. “We talked at halftime about turning the scoreboard off and starting 0-0. We try to make an emphasis to our guys about winning quarters … We were proud of the way our guys came out at halftime.”
The Royals held the Raiders to five points less than their scoring average (64 points per game). The bigger struggles came on the offensive end. Eastern scored just nine points in the second half and had just two field goals in the final 16 minutes, a third-quarter 3-pointer from sophomore Cole Rainbolt and a fourth-quarter trey from sophomore Landon O’Neal.
“Defensively, we did some decent things. Offensive we have a ways to go before we can really compete against a really good team,” Spaulding said. “We have to learn to execute better on the offensive end, set better screens, cut harder and we have to learn to be more patient and get good shots.
“A lot of that has to be attributed to Wapahani. They’re a good team. They guarded us well and they took us out of what we wanted to do.”
The Royals came in winners of four of the last five games. Two of the team’s three previous losses were by a mere two points each, a 58-56 loss at North Decatur on Dec. 28 and a season-opening 56-54 defeat at the hands of Centerville.
“I told the players, from time to time, a good butt-kicking is good for the soul,” Spaulding said. “It focuses you and highlights what you have to get better at.”
O’Neal and Wise led Eastern in scoring with six points apiece.
Wapahani senior David Spence led all scorers with 15 points. Drew Luce scored 14 and senior Evan Rausch had 11. The Raiders finished with eight 3-pointers. Rausch had three. Drew Luce and senior Braxton Davis each had two.
The Royals are back in action Friday, Jan. 17, with a 7:30 p.m. home game against Waldron (2-6).
