Eastern Hancock’s Grace Stapleton gets pressured from Pendleton Heights’ Kaycie Warfel and Skylar Baldwin on Monday, Jan. 24, 2022. (Tom Russo/Daily Reporter)
CHARLOTTESVILLE — With both teams sectional tournaments just one week away, Monday’s matchup at Eastern Hancock High School lined up as quality preparation for postseason play.
The host Royals are one of the area’s top teams in Class 2A. Pendleton Heights is among the best in the Class 4A group.
Only one team could get a win, but both certainly benefited from a pre-tourney fine-tune.
Pendleton Heights (16-4) won its seventh game in its last eight outings by defeating Eastern Hancock, 61-47.
“We knew this last week of the season was a good way to simulate a tournament atmosphere,” Pendleton Heights coach Chad Cook. “We’re here on the road playing a tough Eastern Hancock team that’s going to play tough defensively and rebound well. It’s a lot like a first-round sectional game.
“I thought what Eastern Hancock did today was a good test for us.”
Eastern Hancock coach Shari Doud said the Arabians may be the strongest opponent on their schedule.
She said her team learned a lot, but is hoping they don’t lose confidence coming up on the short end of the score.
“That’s a great Pendleton Heights team,” Doud said. “I told my girls in the locker room after the game that we can’t mentally get beat down because this game helps prepare us for the sectional. There are a couple of really good teams in our sectional. We can’t beat ourselves up and lose confidence.
“Competitive kids don’t like to lose and we have competitive kids on this team. … We have two more games to close out then all focus is on Triton Central (our first-round opponent). Some mistakes we made in this game we have to get corrected before we go up against Triton Central. You learn from it, grow from it and perform better the next time.”
The first half was a shootout between Pendleton Heights freshman Kaycie Warfel and Eastern Hancock junior Grace Stapleton.
Warfel scored eight first-quarter points and helped get her club out to as much as an 11-point lead, 14-3.
The visitors looked to be in command until Stapleton scored late in the opening period on a couple of steals. She added a drive and layup early in the second to cut Pendleton Heights’ advantage to 16-10. It started a run of 10 straight points from the 5-foot-6 guard. She followed with the first of her three second-quarter 3s. She also scored on a conventional three-point play, with a bucket and free throw, to tie the game 16-16. Her NBA-range 3-pointer gave Eastern Hancock a 19-16 lead with 4:45 left in the half.
Warfel’s aggressive play got the Arabians the next seven points. The first five came on free throws. She scored off a steal to give Pendleton Heights a 25-19 lead with 2:03 remaining until halftime.
The Arabians led 29-22 at the break and for the rest of the game. Warfel had 17 first-half points. Stapleton had 19 of EH’s 22.
Eastern Hancock, on three points each from Sammie Bolding and Ruby White got the second half off to a good start. After the Royals cut the deficit to one, 29-28, the Arabians went on a 15-0 run. Abi Rosenkrans had seven third-quarter points for PH. Warfel added five more to her total.
The Pendleton Heights rookie finished with a career-best 34 points, including 14 of 18 at the free throw line.
Stapleton led the Royals with 20. White had a strong second half. She finished with 13, all in the final two periods. Bolding had 10.
The Arabians went unbeaten in the Hoosier Heritage Conference and picked up a clean sweep of Hancock County opponents. Earlier this season, on their way to the HHC title, they defeated Mt. Vernon, New Palestine and Greenfield-Central – all teams they could meet again in next week’s Class 4A Sectional 9 at Mt. Vernon High School.
The Royals dropped to 14-6. All of their losses have come to either state-ranked schools or teams that are playing in a higher classification. Monday’s loss to Pendleton Heights was their second against a Class 4A team. They also lost recently at New Palestine.
Along with a loss to Class 3A New Castle, Eastern’s only other schedule blemishes are to Class 2A No. 8 Triton Central, Class 1A No. 1 Waldron and Class 1A No. 4 Blue River.
Against teams in Class 2A, the Royals are 7-1, but they’ll have to face that one team when play begins in Class 2A Sectional 42 at Heritage Christian School. They face Triton Central in a Friday, Feb. 4 semifinal game.
Eastern Hancock completes regular-season play with a Mid-Eastern Conference contest at Randolph Southern tonight. The regular-season finale is at home on Thursday against Tri.
Pendleton Heights will get another big test on Wednesday, at home, against Class 4A No. 6 Noblesville (17-4). The Arabians finish the regular season Thursday with a home contest against Pike. Their Class 4A Sectional 9 opener will be on Wednesday, Feb. 2 against Richmond at Mt. Vernon.
Pendleton Heights 61, Eastern Hancock 47
Pendleton Heights;14;15;14;18;—;61
Eastern Hancock;8;14;11;14;—;47
Pendleton Heights (16-4): Morgan Martin 3 0-0 6, Hailee Brunnemer 2 2-2 6, Skylar Baldwin 0 0-0 0, Kaycie Warfel 10 14-18 34, Ava Phillips 0 0-0 0, Emma Roberts 0 0-0 0, Abi Rosenkrans 3 2-4 9, Isabelle Williams 0 0-0 0, Berkley Shelton 0 0-0 0, Kylea Lloyd 2 2-2 6, Tra’Mya Herndon 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20 20-26 61.
Eastern Hancock (14-6): Caroline Stapleton 0 1-3 1, Grace Stapleton 7 3-5 20, Emma Bolding 0 0-0 0, Sammie Bolding 2 5-5 10, Sydney Springman 0 0-0 0, Makenzie O’Neal 0 0-0 0, Brooklyn Willis 1 1-1 3, Ruby White 6 1-1 13. Totals: 16 11-15 37.
3-point goals: Pendleton Heights 1 (Rosenkrans); Eastern Hancock 4 (G. Stapleton 3, S. Bolding)
