Eastern Hancock’s Ruby White, left, and Grace Stapleton celebrate after defeating state-ranked Triton Central in triple-overtime in last year’s sectional semifinal game on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2022.
Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
CHARLOTTESVILLE — Eastern Hancock got over a big hurdle in last year’s Class 2A Sectional 42 semifinals, but it wasn’t able to get over the last one.
With many of the same players returning for the 2022-23 girls basketball season, they just might have what it takes to clear that last obstacle.
A year ago, the Royals went 17-7, equaling the most wins in a single season since they went 17-8 during 2015-16.
It’s a program that’s used to winning – 11 straight plus-.500 seasons – but it hadn’t been able to get by one of Class 2A’s top programs, Triton Central.
After having seasons come to and at the hands of the Tigers in three of the last four sectional tournaments, the Royals beat the Tigers, in triple-overtime, in last year’s sectional semis.
Unfortunately, they came up short of a sectional championship, losing to Heritage Christian 45-42.
“We’ve been there and know how it feels,” senior point guard Grace Stapleton said. “It adds fuel. We’ve been practicing hard every day. We know everything we’re doing is to try to reach our goal of winning a sectional championship.
“We’re not satisfied. We know the hurt we felt on the bus ride back (after the Heritage Christian game). We went out to eat after that game and talked about how we should have won and should still be practicing. We know how it feels and we don’t want to feel it again.”
The bad news was the loss. The good news is most of those that played considerable minutes last season are back with that same fire Stapleton has to win a sectional championship.
“They come into this season hungry,” Eastern Hancock head coach Shari Doud said. “Just beating Triton Central in the semifinals of the sectional is not enough. That was an exciting night, but it didn’t mean anything when we didn’t get a sectional title.
“Instead of a season of almosts, we don’t want to be second in our conference and we don’t want to finish runner-up in our sectional. We have very high expectations for ourselves. We want to win more than 17 games. We want to do everything better than the year before. Those things are attainable if we trust each other in the grand scheme of team play. If we can get them to come together, and they’re a close-knit group, on the court and do their part, we can be a real force to be reckoned with.”
Amazingly, they’re still a relatively young team. Stapleton, a four-year starter, is one of only two seniors. The 5-feet, 6-inch veteran averaged 12.5 points, 3.6 assists, and 2.5 steals per game.
Emma Bolding (5-9, forward) is another four-year varsity veteran. She averaged 6.7 points and 4.2 rebounds.
“I think it’s good we’re coming in with a lot of the same group of girls,” Bolding said. “Not that the competition will be any easier, but we’re going to push each other to keep going and to win games.”
Sammie Bolding and Ruby White are juniors that have either been part-time or full-time starters their entire high school careers. Bolding (5-4, guard) averaged 12.8 points and 3.3 steals in 2021-22.
White is a 6-feet, 1-inch post player that scored 7.0 points per game and 5.7 rebounds.
Three more juniors Makenzie O’Neal (5-7), Sydney Springman (5-3) and Brooklyn Willis (5-4) were all part of last year’s regular rotation of players. O’Neal averaged 5.8 points and 5.0 rebounds. Springman averaged 3.0 points and Willis scored 1.8 per contest.
“We have really good scoring punch, solid ball-handling, primarily with Grace, and nice secondary ball-handling. Then, you have 6-1 Ruby White to complement that,” Doud said. “That’s an incredible combination to go into a season with, of different talents and sizes.”
The depth doesn’t end with last year’s returnees. Doud believes sophomores Ellie Meyer (5-9) and Camryn Andrus (5-5) could also see playing time.
The expectations are high.
“Even more so this year than last with the core group of kids we have coming back,” Doud said of expectations. “We had a really good first week of practice. They’re showing right off the bat, we’re going to have depth and, hopefully, wear teams down.”
The Royals were not just runner-up in last year’s sectional, they were also second in the Mid-Eastern Conference.
The Royals went 9-1 in league play, but were behind unbeaten Blue River Valley. With its returning players, Eastern Hancock is likely the favorite in the MEC this season, with challenges expected to come from BRV, Wapahani and Monroe Central.
Heritage Christian has moved up to Class 3A, but Triton Central will still be a hurdle to get over during tournament play.
The season opens with an MEC game. Eastern Hancock will host Wes-Del Tuesday.
