By Brady Extin | Daily Reporter
PENDLETON — Throughout a 20-plus game regular season schedule, teams grow, fight, and learn how to overcome different scenarios.
23 games into the season, Eastern Hancock may have overcome their most important challenge yet.
With nearly every player in the starting five in foul trouble, Eastern Hancock held on to defeat Class 4A Pendleton Heights 61-57.
“We’ve played a lot of 4A teams this year, and they’re all really good. That’s going to do nothing but help us,” Eastern Hancock head coach Aaron Spaulding said. “We’re getting all kinds of different things that might happen in the tournament, and we’re finding a way. This was really the first time all year that we gutted out a win, so we really needed that going into the postseason.”
In a tightly-called game, Eastern Hancock was in foul trouble nearly all night long. Kayden Ruble picked up his fourth foul at the 1:30 mark of the third, Grant Gray had four for the majority of the final quarter, Luke Morris had three, and the Royals leading scorer and primary ball-handler Jacob Spaulding fouled out with 3:40 left in the game and the Royals up just four points.
Close games with foul trouble issues have been nothing new to the Royals this season. They lost to Tindley in double OT 66-61 with Jacob on the bench and lost to New Castle by one just five days ago with Spaulding out.
This time, though, the Royals showed they could win those types of games.
“Really, I’m glad it happened because it was a gutsy win. We had a few games earlier in the year where Jacob fouled out, and we lost both by one point. You never know what’s going to happen come tournament time. The whistles might not go your way, and we may end up with some people on the bench,” coach Spaulding said. “We did a great job of finding a way to win, and I’m really proud of the kids, just a great team effort.”
After the offensive foul that sent Jacob to the bench, the Arabians went down the court and found Evan Mozingo open in the corner for a 3-pointer to cut the Eastern lead to 53-52. When Eastern Hancock senior Edric Miller made a layup, Pendleton Heights’ Dontrez Braxton answered by knocking down a 3 to tie the game for the first time since the opening quarter.
With the Royals go-to guy at the end of games on the bench, it was two other seniors stepping up and commanding the offense.
With the game tied, Jacob’s twin brother, Silas, hit a go-ahead layup to put the Royals up 57-55. After a layup from Pendleton Heights’ Josiah Gustin knotted things back up, Silas Spaulding and Miller controlled the clock and ran off a minute of game time before finding Ruble open for the layup that would prove to be the game-winner.
“I thought (Tuesday) we did a better job. In previous games, we kind of would look around for somebody to do something because (Jacob is) our primary ball handler,” coach Spaulding said. “Tonight we had both Edric and Silas step up with the ball in their hands and both made really big plays.”
After a Miller free throw, Mozingo’s game-tying 3-point attempt went just long, and a rebound and two more free throws from Miller sealed the win.
Miller led the Royals with 21 points, and scored seven in the final quarter.
“Edric was outstanding,” coach Spaulding said. “When he steps up and plays like that we’re going to be pretty hard to beat.”
The Royals controlled the game for most of the way with a nine-point lead after one, and an 11-point advantage at halftime, but when the fouls began to pile up, the Arabians made their move.
Behind seven Aaron Cookston points, the Arabians outscored Eastern Hancock 20-14 in the third to enter the closing period down just five, but a tie game was as close as they would get.
Mozingo led the Arabians with 16, and Gustin added 14.
Following Miller for the Royals was Grant Gray with 12, and both Spaulding brothers with 10 each.
The Royals end the regular season 7:30 p.m. Friday at Hagerstown.
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Eastern Hancock 61, Pendleton Heights 57
Eastern Hancock;20;10:14;17; — ;61
Pendleton Heights;11;8;20;18; — ;57
Eastern Hancock (17-6): Jacob Spaulding 3 4-7 10, Silas Spaulding 4 1-2 10, Edric Miller 6 6-8 21, Grant Gray 5 0-0 12, Kayden Ruble 1 2-2 4, Luke Morris 0 4-4 4, Caiden Willis 0 0-0 0. Totals: 19 17-23 61
Pendleton Heights (7-16): Josiah Gustin 5 4-4 14, Evan Mozingo 6 0-2 16, Aaron Cookston 4 1-6 9, Isaac Wilson 3 0-0 7, Brayden Kanitz 2 0-0 4, Dontrez Braxton 2 2-2 7, Caden Sims 0 0-0 0, Reese Caplinger 0 0-0 0, Canon Cook 0 0-0 0. Totals: 22 7-14 57
3-point goals: Eastern Hancock 6 (Miller 3, Gray 2, S. Spaulding 1), Pendleton Heights 6 (Mozingo 4, Braxton 1, Wilson 1)
