By KEVIN HARRIS
SEYMOUR – Last Saturday’s Class 4A Seymour Regional
championship game at Scott Gym was a classic matchup between New Albany’s
quickness and Castle’s size.
Size won on this night.
The Knights’ top two front-court players in seniors Jack
Nunge and Payton Mills combined to score 42 points and grab 27 rebounds in
their 72-64 victory over the defending Class 4A state champion Bulldogs. It was
No. 8 Castle’s third regional title and its first since 2012. The Knights will
take on Indianapolis Ben Davis (21-5) in the Class 4A Seymour Semistate at 3
p.m. this coming Saturday.
Even though Nunge draws the most attention as he will play
at Iowa next season, Mills’ contributions were crucial last Saturday. The
6-foot-5 center scored a team-high 22 points on 10-of-17 shooting. He also
grabbed nine rebounds.
“No. 32 (Mills) was a bear on the boards. He played so hard.
He just plowed his way in there and we didn’t have an answer for him,” New
Albany head coach Jim Shannon said. “You’ve got to take your hat off to a kid
that has that much heart.
Nunge, a 6-11 power forward, tallied 20 points and snagged a
game-high 18 boards. He was 8-of-16 from the floor and 4-of-5 from the
free-throw line.
“Nunge was just a load for us,” Shannon said. “He’s 6-11 and
he’s tough for us (to defend). How do you stop that, you know? They’ve got good
players. They’ve got a really good chance of winning the state.”
Teammate Alex Hemenway provided Castle (24-3) with its
backcourt punch. The 6-3 sophomore guard wound up with 17 points on 7-of-13
shooting. He joined Mills with nine rebounds to assist the Knights in winning
the battle of the boards 42-26.
For the game, Castle shot 30-of-59 from the field (50.8
percent). Hemenway, Mills and Nunge combined to make 25-of-46 field-goal
attempts (54.3 percent).
“I thought we got beat by a great basketball team,” Shannon
said. “I think if we played 10 times, we would split it down the middle. But
we’re not playing 10 times. We’re playing once. They played better. We had no
answer at all for their inside-out game.”
The Knight trio’s 59 points offset another solid performance
by New Albany junior Romeo Langford. The 6-foot-5 five-star swingman scored a
game-high 44 points. That point total was two points off his single-game school
record of 46 that he set last year in the Bulldogs’ 82-64 win over Southport’s
in last year’s Class 4A Richmond Semistate.
Isaac Hibbard was the only other New Albany player that
reached double figures. The senior guard ended up with 15 points, shooting
3-of-5 from the field and 8-of-8 from the free-throw line.
Hibbard was one of three seniors on the top-ranked Bulldogs’
roster. The other two were guard Peyton Martin and forward Seth Short.
PLAYER OF THE GAME:
Langford – The Naismith All-American’s 44 points marked the seventh time in
his high school career he has scored 40-plus points. Langford shot 13-of-34
from the floor, 5-of-17 from 3-point range and 13-of-16 from the stripe.
“I originally said I think we can beat them even if he gets
50, and I thought he was going to get 50 there for a while,” Castle head coach
Brian Gibson said. “We definitely outscored him because we didn’t think that we
could stop him. That’s what we did. I thought our kids did a nice job of taking
away some of their other options. He’s a phenomenal basketball player.”
Langford also grabbed seven rebounds. He had a combined 17
rebounds in the regional, as he needs three more boards to pass former New
Albany great Chad Hunter as the school’s all-time leading rebounder. Langford
is already the Bulldogs’ career leading scorer with 2,079 points.
KEY SEQUENCE: Leading
49-48 early in the fourth quarter, Castle produced a 15-4 run to take its
largest lead of the game at 64-52 with 3:43 remaining in regulation. Mills and
Hemenway scored a combined 13 points during that stretch.
The closest the Bulldogs (25-4) got after that was seven
points in two instances. With 2:03 left. Hibbard hit his lone 3 of the contest
to pull New Albany to within 68-61. After a Nunge bucket, Langford knocked down
a pair of free throws to cut the Bulldogs’ deficit to 70-63 with 1:32
remaining.
UNSUNG HERO: Mills –
Shannon declared the Castle senior the game’s unsung hero even though he has
been one of the Knights’ key contributors all season. Mills entered the
regional averaging 12.6 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.
“I thought that kid played outstanding and we weren’t expecting
that from him,” Shannon said.
WHAT NEW ALBANY DID
WELL: Obviously, Langford had another productive game despite shooting 38.2
percent for the game.
Hibbard finished his career with his usual solid outing.
Despite the loss, New Albany shot well from the line, making 21-of-24 foul
shots (87.5 percent).
AREAS OF CONCERN FOR
NEW ALBANY: There were plenty in the regional final for the Bulldogs like
getting outrebounded by 16, battling Castle’s size and only forcing the Knights
into four turnovers.
But the biggest concern for New Albany was in the scoring
department. Only four Bulldogs factored into the scoring column and Langford
and Hibbard accounted for 92.1 percent of the team’s point production. New
Albany junior guard Sean East, who entered the regional as the team’s
third-leading scorer at 12.6 points per game, went scoreless.
For the past two seasons, the Bulldogs are pretty much
unbeatable when they have at least three players score in double figures and at
least six players get in the scoring column. But last Saturday, that did not happen.
CLASS 4A SEYMOUR
REGIONAL
CHAMPIONSHIP
CASTLE 72, NEW ALBANY
64
New Albany 15 18 12 19-64
Castle 16 16 17 23-72
New Albany (25-4):
Romeo Langford 44, Isaac Hibbard 15, Derrick Stevenson 3, Blake Murphy 2, Sean
East 0, Julien Hunter 0, Savion Southers 0.
Castle (24-3): Payton
Mills 22, Jack Nunge 20, Alex Hemenway 17, Brandon Eades 8, Jace Steiler 3,
Triston Wilkinson 2, Jordan Baker 0, Zach Messinger 0.
3-point field goals:
New Albany 7 (Langford 5, Hibbard 1, Stevenson 1); Castle 3 (Hemenway 2, Steiler 1).
Rebounds: New Albany 26
(Langford 7); Castle 42 (Nunge 18).
Turnovers: New
Albany 6, Castle 4.
Free throws: New
Albany 21-24, Castle 9-14.
Total fouls: New
Albany 15, Castle 17.
Fouled out: none.
SEMIFINAL
NEW ALBANY 57, CENTER
GROVE 52
Center Grove 8 12 14 18-52
New Albany 15
9 18 15-57
Center Grove (17-8):
Travis Roehling 18, Trayce Jackson-Davis 16, Joey Klaasen 9, Nate McLain 9,
Lucas Doyle 0, Ben Nicoson 0, Spencer Piercefield 0.
New Albany (25-3):
Langford 21, East 9, Hibbard 8, Murphy 7, Hunter 6, Stevenson 6.
3-point field goals:
Center Grove 4 (McLain 3, Klaasen 1); New
Albany 4 (East 1, Hibbard 1, Murphy 1, Stevenson 1).
Rebounds: Center
Grove 23 (Jackson-Davis 7); New
Albany 26 (Langford 10).
Turnovers: Center
Grove 8, New Albany 6.
Free throws:
Center Grove 8-14, New Albany 11-13.
Total fouls:
Center Grove 16, New Albany 13.
Fouled out: none.
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