Eastern Hancock’s Landon O’Neal pulls up to score against University High School during the IHSAA Class 2A Regional 11 championship, Saturday, March 12, 2022
Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
CHARLOTTESVILLE — A mutual question as teams across the state prepare for their IHSAA boys basketball semistate matchup — seeking a berth in their classification’s state championship game — is, “Who are these guys?”
It’s not a disrespectful comment by any means, but this far into the tournament series the common opponent factor shrinks the further you get from your locale.
As Class 2A No. 9 Eastern Hancock (22-5) prepared to take on Clarksville Providence (19-6), the only thing the Royals knew, prior to seeking film and reaching out to coaches that have played the Pioneers, was they were obviously a really good team.
That part remains accurate — of the Pioneers six losses five have come to 3A or 4A schools —but Royals coach Aaron Spaulding is hopeful their preparation and their own talents will prevail when the teams meet at 6 p.m. in Seymour High School’s Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium.
The winner will play for the 2A state championship March 26 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
“They’re a really good team,” Spaulding said of the Pioneers. “They have a lot of good players and they are really good defensively. They are going to be physical with you and aggressive on defense.
“They hit the boards well. They’ve got several guys that can do various things well and have some shooters.”
Casey Kaelin, a 6-foot-3 junior, has been Providence’s leader of late. He had 26 of the team’s 44 points in the regional final, a 44-37 win over Forest Park. He was also the team’s starting shortstop on the school’s 2021 state championship baseball team.
Grant Williams, a 6-4 senior, is another double-figure scoring starter.
Spaulding said he’s spent some phone time with coaches that have played against Providence, as well as breaking down film of a number of Providence games.
“You have to find out a lot pretty quick,” he added.
It’s similar to last week. The Royals opened the regional tournament against Southmont, a team it had not played during the regular season nor had common opponents. The team they met in the final, University, had just two shared opponents (Heritage Christian, Shenandoah).
“It’s kind of hard, not seeing them in person,” he added. “It’s hard to get a feel how physical, how athletic (they are). It’s hard to pick that up on tape.
“We obviously have to do what we do. Also, you have to balance that out and force them to do things they aren’t as good at. Hopefully those things match up, what you’re good at to what they aren’t as strong or are deficient at.”
Providence is in the same boat, also seeing a good team for the first time.
What they’ll be facing is one of the state’s best perimeter shooting squads, regardless of class.
As Spaulding said, they have to do what they do, and that’s shoot extremely well from the perimeter.
The Royals have 269 3s in 27 games, a 10 per game average. That’s third in the state behind Indianapolis Tech (10.7) and Wabash (10.3).
The 269 is the most among IHSAA schools (that record stats in MaxPreps.com). The only Indiana schools with more are non-IHSAA home-schooled programs that have played between 43-50 games.
All seven players that play regularly for the Royals are 3-point threats, led by senior Landon O’Neal, the school’s all-time 3-point leader with 247. Six of the group have at least 24 made 3-pointers on the season and all seven are in double figures.
“I have a different philosophy from some coaches, I’m not going to tell a kid not to shoot,” Spaulding said. “We’ll certainly talk about it if someone takes a garbage shot. I will let them know it’s a bad shot, but the kids know if they have a good shot they have the green light.
“I am never going to take a kid out because he misses a shot. If it’s a bad shot, they might get taken out but they are not going to be taken out because they miss it.”
Four players on the roster are among the school’s all-time leaders in treys, including Silas Spaulding (No. 5, 140), Cole Rainbolt (No. 7, 120), and Jacob Spaulding (No. 12, 101).
“It goes to a philosophy I have. It is miserable to try and guard five people,” coach Spaulding said. “When you just have to stop one guy, you can get that down. If it’s two, that’s OK. Three starts to be a real headache. If you have to take away five, it gets pretty difficult.”
Along with shooting well, the Royals have really done a nice job defensively during their run to the Seymour Semi-State.
The defensive pressure that has helped force turnovers has helped them get off to good starts.
In the last three games, including the sectional championship against Northeastern and regional games against Southmont and University, opponents have averaged six first-quarter turnovers. Northeastern had nine, Southmont five and University four.
On the other side, the Royals are averaging only 6.4 turnovers per game this season.
The winner of Saturday’s semistate will play the winner of the North (Elkhart) Semistate between No. 3 Central Noble (27-2) and No. 6 Carroll (Flora) (24-1).
The Class 2A state championship game is scheduled to be played, approximately, at 12:45 p.m. March 26, following the 10:30 a.m. Class A title contest.
Prior to the Royals-Pioneers game, at 4 p.m., No. 10 Jac-Cen-Del (22-5) will play No. 2 North Daviess (25-3) for a chance to play for the Class 1A championship next week.
Seymour South Semistate
Saturday, March 19, 2022
Site: Seymour High School (Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium)
Class 1A: Jac-Cen-Del (22-5) vs. North Daviess (25-3), 4 p.m.
Class 2A: Eastern Hancock (22-5) vs. Providence (19-6), 6 p.m.
Admission: $10 per game
