SHELBYVILLE — A barrage of 3-pointers, a 12-0 run to end the first half, and 81 percent shooting from the free-throw line from the state’s No. 1 ranked team was too much to overcome.
Eastern Hancock High School’s best girls basketball season in school history came to an end in an afternoon semi-state clash with top-rated North Knox Saturday at Shelbyville’s William Garrett Gymnasium.
The Warriors hit five first-quarter treys, ended the first half with the final 12 points to take a 38-20 advantage, and connected on 27 of 33 tries from the charity stripe to beat the Royals 67-50.
Eastern Hancock won a school-record 23 games and picked up the program’s first regional championship. The team’s sectional title was the first in six years and third in program history. They finished the year ranked No. 8 in Class 2A.
Reaching the semi-state round, the Royals were among the final eight teams remaining in Class 2A.
For a spot in the state championship game Saturday evening, North Knox lost 41-33 to No. 2 Forest Park, the defending Class 2A champion.
They shot an uncanny percentage,” Eastern Hancock coach Shari Doud said. “Of all the teams we’ve played before I don’t think any of the teams shot like that, throughout the game. Hats off to them. Defensively, we had some miscommunication on transition.
“We’re in the semi-state and we just didn’t put one together against a team that has a bunch of scrappy guards.”
Fast ones, too.
The Warriors’ speed on offense and defense caused problems for the Royals. North Knox started a guard-heavy lineup with no true post player.
“We knew we had to defend the 3-point line and we just didn’t do that well the first half,” Doud said. “We knew they had a strong dribble-drive and good perimeter shooting. Our focus was to stop the dribble-drive, one-on-one, so they couldn’t kick to their shooters. That’s how quick they are getting to the baskets. They got around some of our quickest players.
We tried starting all guards in the second half. We tried man-to-man. We tried zone. We tried everything we had and that team was just that good.”
North Knox freshman guard Lexi Primus went 4 of 5 from the field in the first quarter, including a pair of 3s. Brynna Collins, Brooklyn Sturgeon and Ava Williams all hit treys in the opening eight minutes. The Warriors made 5 of 9 from 3-point range to start the game.
Overall, they finished 8 of 18 (44.4 percent) from beyond the arc. They hit 16 of 34 on all field-goal attempts (47.1 percent).
“When we played University (to win the regional), we looked at it like they’re bigger than us, run circles around them.” Eastern Hancock 6-foot-1 junior center Ruby White said. “I think that’s how (North Knox) viewed us. They did a good job of that. We hadn’t experienced a defense as aggressive as their’s. I think they really stuck it to us. Props to them for that.”
Down 11-4, Eastern Hancock got within two, 14-12 with 1:36 left in the opening quarter. Grace Stapleton and Sammie Bolding each hit 3-pointers. Sophomore sub Ellie Meyer also scored on a bucket on a nice feed from White, but the Warriors had an answer.
Sturgeon and Williams each hit from deep and Primus had another bucket. Williams’ trey was right before the first-period buzzer and it gave North Knox a 19-12 advantage.
Eastern Hancock looked like they might weather the Knox shooting storm in the second. Emma Bolding and White hit back-to-back second-quarter buckets to cut the Warriors’ lead to 26-20 with 3:42 left until halftime, but that would be the Royals’ final points until the second half.
McCory hit her 3, Primus, who finished with a game-high 22 points, nailed another and the Warriors hit four free throws during their half-ending spurt.
In hopes to match up better, the Royals started the second half with a five-guard lineup, inserting Brooklyn Willis and Sydney Springman for Bolding and White. It worked for a while, Sammie Bolding and Grace Stapleton hit 3-pointers early in the third to knock the margin down to 14, 40-26 with 6:32 left in the quarter.
When White returned she was more effective, too. When she hit back-to-back buckets later in the quarter, Eastern had whittled the North Knox lead to 13, 45-32.
The Royals looked on the verge of knocking the margin under double digits, but as they did in the first two quarters, the Warriors ended the period strong. They scored the quarter’s final five points — on 5 of 6 free throws — to take a 52-33 lead into the final quarter.
Sammie Bolding led Eastern Hancock scorers with 10 points. Stapleton had nine and White scored eight.
Following Primus, Alex McKinley, a sophomore, had 10 points, and was the only other double-figure scorer.
“I’m as proud of this group as the North Knox coach is of his players winning the game,” Doud said. “We set the school record in wins, were 9-0 in the conference. It was a perfect year for the most part. All great things come to an end, even if you win a state title, for those seniors. I’m proud of them.”
The Royals will have the majority of their roster returning, but will miss two outstanding seniors in Stapleton and Emma Bolding.
Stapleton is the program’s all-time leader in 3-pointers, both single season (85) and career (202), as well as one of the program’s all-time leading scorers (1,110 points).
Emma Bolding (576 career points, 313 career rebounds) has been a regular in the lineup since she was a freshman, and started the majority of the last three seasons and has played a key role in the team’s successes.
“They leave huge shoes to fill, but we’re confident we have the feet to fit in to them, so to speak, but it will take work.” Doud said. “What those kids and this team has done is build a winning culture at Eastern Hancock. These young kids seeing this are growing up thinking they want to be like this someday, and our boys’ team is doing the same stuff. The winning culture is climbing high at Eastern Hancock.”
“I wish they could just flunk out and stay another year,” White joked about losing Stapleton and Bolding to graduation. “Honestly, they set great examples for us and really showed us what it’s like to have success. They’ve led the way.”
White added, “What we’re feeling really right now, this sting, it really hurts. In the grand scheme of things, what we’ve accomplished is so much greater and as we go on through our lives that’s what we are going to remember.”
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North Knox 67, Eastern Hancock 50
North Knox;19;19;14;15;—;67
Eastern Hancock;12;8;13;17;—;50
North Knox (28-1): Lexi Primus 6 7-7 22, Alex McKinley 2 6-6 10, Brynna Collins 2 3-4 8, Reegan Hammelman 1 2-2 4, Brooklyn Sturgeon 1 1-2 4, Madison McCory 2 4-6 9, Bailey Utt 0 3-4 3, Ava Williams 2 1-2 7, Cora Armes 0 0-0 0, Lucie Sheren 0 0-0 0, Reagan Jones 0 0-0 0, Baylee McClure 0 0-0 0.. Totals: 16 27-33 67.
Eastern Hancock (23-4): Makenzie O’Neal 2 2-4 6, Emma Bolding 2 0-0 4, Ruby White 4 0-0 8, Grace Stapleton 3 0-0 9, Sammie Bolding 2 4-6 10, Brooklyn Willis 2 0-1 4, Ellie Meyer 2 0-0 4, Sydney Springman 2 1-1 5, Camryn Andrus 0 0-0 0, Lainee Parker 0 0-0 0, Kiersten Judd 0 0-0 0. Totals: 19 7-12 50.
3-point goals: North Knox 8 (Primus 3, Williams 2, Collins, Sturgeon, McCory); Eastern Hancock 5 (Stapleton 3, S. Bolding 2)
