Eastern Hancock’s Edric Miller, left, and Greenfield-Central’s Joey Roland go up for the tip during their game on Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2021. (Tom Russo/Daily Reporter)
GREENFIELD — Not this time.
As Eastern Hancock senior Edric Miller stood at the free-throw line Tuesday night, facing a 43-43 tie and 2 minutes, 37 seconds left against Hancock County rival Greenfield-Central, he refused to let history repeat itself.
Twenty-five days earlier, Miller and the Class 2A 12th-ranked Royals held a four-point lead over county foe New Palestine before losing by three points, 44-41.
With host 4A Greenfield-Central taking its first lead since the first quarter behind two free throws by Dylan Moles, 38-37, and then later tying it up, 43-43, as the Cougars’ junior guard converted a layup three minutes afterwards, Miller decided it was time.
Hit buried the first free throw for the lead, then he hit the second for some cushion.
With 20.6 seconds left in the game, Miller followed up with an unanswered bucket, finishing with a team-high 16 points, as the Royals held on to beat the Cougars, 49-46, for their fifth straight victory.
“It was huge. We hadn’t played them in a while and to be able to come out and beat them like that it feels great,” Miller said. “I just knew I had to sink (those foul shots). I missed one in the first half, and I knew I had to sink those two to clinch the game up.”
If there was a county tournament, Eastern Hancock (6-1) would now be .500 after losing to New Palestine on Dec. 3 at home.
In the first quarter, the Cougars (4-5) appeared primed to make it two while snapping their two-game losing streak after building a 13-8 lead that was fueled by a 12-2 run.
By the end of the first quarter, Greenfield-Central led 15-14, but it wouldn’t hold another advantage until 7:43 left in the game.
The Royals went on a 6-0 run late in the first quarter to cut the deficit, 15-14, then put together a 7-0 rally in the second quarter to establish a 21-15 lead.
Eastern Hancock’s largest margin was eight points, twice, in the third quarter, but the Cougars repeatedly narrowed the gap despite finishing 2 of 16 from 3-point range.
“We were 0-for-8 at half from the 3-point line,” G-C head coach Luke Meredith said. “Eastern is tough. All respect to them. Coach (Aaron) Spaulding has a really talented squad this year, and they’re going to win a lot of ball games.”
The Cougars were 0-for-11 from long range until freshman Braylon Mullins buried the team’s first with 4:55 remaining in the second half. Mullins hit both of the Cougars’ treys and had 13 points with three rebounds and three steals.
Moles had a game-high 20 points, going 8 of 14 from the field and 4-for-4 from the foul line. He posted 12 points in the first half and another eight in the second. It was nearly nine, but his potential game-tying 3-pointer at the final horn rimmed out as Eastern Hancock’s Landon O’Neal secured the defensive rebound to run out the last three seconds.
“Dylan was able to make some plays offensively, but it just wasn’t enough,” Meredith said. “We’re going to need some other guys to step up and make some plays offensively because if we’re not shooting the ball well, it can’t all be on Dylan or Braylon. We need other guys to hit some shots.”
Greenfield-Central senior Rune Carpenter-Jones provided eight points, and Joey Roland had five with eight rebounds.
The Royals had two in double figures, but only one was projected to reach the mark. Jacob Spaulding finished with 12 points with two of the Royals’ nine 3-pointers. He was averaging 14.3 ppg.
Silas Spaulding had nine points. O’Neal added four points. The former was averaging 12.3 ppg and the latter 15.2.
“This was just a great team effort. I could go up and down the roster and point to a name. Everyone that played, we had seven that played; every one of them we needed to do certain things at different times,” EH head coach Aaron Spaulding said. “They were obviously keyed in on some of our shooters, and Edric stepped up and got some big buckets tonight in both the first half and the second half.”
Grant Gray, a junior, hit back-to-back 3-pointers to reclaim the lead 43-38 with 5:10 remaining after Moles gave G-C a 38-37 advantage.
“Grant Gray came off the bench and knocked down two huge shots in the fourth quarter,” Spaulding said. “What a great team effort. Our three leading scorers were probably all below their average, but they drew the attention, which got other people open.”
Miller was one of those shooters, and he was 5 of 6 from the field and 3 of 4 from the foul line.
“I like taking advantage of my opportunities. They were playing back off of me, so I took advantage,” Miller said. “That (New Pal loss) hurt. It was so close. We had a lead at halftime, and then their best player just took off on us. We couldn’t keep up.”
The Royals found a way to keep up and stay ahead to hand the Cougars their third straight loss and first at home this season. The Cougars won the two programs’ last meeting, 55-53, on Jan. 30, 2016 and hold a 31-13 series lead in the past 35 years.
“We’ve lost three in a row. Lawrenceburg was undefeated and still undefeated. Connersville was the No. 1 team in the state, and Eastern Hancock is fourth in the state in defense. They’re a really good team. I don’t care if they’re 2A, 3A, 4A, whatever. And it doesn’t get any easier. We have Mt. Vernon coming to our place next game and then we have New Castle and Richmond. That’s the beauty of 4A basketball,” Meredith said. “I’m proud of how our kids played tonight, but we just came out on the other side of it.”
Eastern Hancock 49, Greenfield-Central 46
Eastern Hancock;14;12;11;12; —;49
Greenfield-Central;15;8;13;10; —;46
GREENFIELD-CENTRAL (4-5): Joey Roland 2 1-2 5, Braylon Mullins 5 1-1 13, Dylan Moles 8 4-4 20, Adam Lester 0 0-0 0, Rune Carpenter-Jones 4 0-0 8, Rashawn Street 0 0-0 0, Tyler Kerkhof 0 0-0 0, Owen Anderson 0 0-0 0. Totals: 19 6-7 46.
EASTERN HANCOCK (6-1): Landon O’Neal 2 0-0 4, Edric Miller 5 3-4 16, Jacob Spaulding 5 0-0 12, Cole Rainbolt 0 0-0 0, Cyrus Burton 0 0-0 0, Silas Spaulding 3 1-1 9, Grant Gray 3 0-0 8. Totals: 18 4-5 49.
3-point goals: Greenfield-Central 2 (Mullins 2); Eastern Hancock 9 (Miller 3, J. Spaulding 2, S. Spaulding 2, Gray 2).
