Tuesday wrap: great matchups

All 3 county teams who played tonight fell as the final week of the regular season began tonight, but all three fell in their Tuesday-night contests.

Morristown 80, Eastern Hancock 68: The Royals and Yellow Jackets hooked up in a back-and-forth tussle that saw Morristown pull away in the final five minutes. A big reason why was the play of 6-foot-4 Morristown senior Dylan Langkabel. He had 44 points -- 30 in the second half -- to carry the Yellow Jackets to the victory.

Langkabel scored 15 points in each the third and fourth quarters and helped the Jackets pull away. EH led 31-30 at the half and had a 38-32 lead in the third quarter, but Langkabel led an 8-1 run that saw Morristown take the lead at 40-39. He also hit a 3-pointer and a pull-up jumper on back-to-back possessions to turn a three-point edge into a 65-57 game and essentially put it away midway through the fourth.

Victor Vincz followed up his 52-point game from last week by leading four Royals in double-figures, with 24 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Isaiah McCormick had 13 points, including three 3-pointers. Garrett Hancock also hit three triples -- EH hit 10 for the game -- and scored 11 points. Jared Pyle battled foul trouble but finished with 12 points and five rebounds. Cody Wallace had six rebounds.

You can listen to the archive of tonight's game at HancockCountySports.com

EH (10-9) finishes Friday against Hagerstown.

Westfield 59, Mt. Vernon 52: The Marauders dropped their third straight game -- all against 4A schools -- against a strong Shamrocks team on the road.

Stephen Turner led the Marauders with 19 points and 10 rebounds. C.J. Coleman scored 15. Center Wade Burtron led Westfield with 21 points.

Westfield built an early 10-point lead. MV cut it to one on several occasions, but couldn't get over the hump, as Westfield outscored the Marauders 26-20 in the fourth quarter.

MV is now 12-7 and finishes the regular season Friday at Yorktown. That game will be live at HancockCountySports.com

Connersville 59, Greenfield-Central 29: The Cougars hung tough for a half, trailing 26-23 at the break, but Connersville started the second half on a big run and outscored G-C 33-6 after the break to pull away.

G-C finishes the regular season 3-17, and opens sectional play Tuesday at New Castle against the same Spartan team it played tonight.

New Palestine was idle tonight, and finishes the regular season Friday at Greenwood. NP is 13-6.

Gymnastics
New Palestine posts season-high score:New Palestine's gymnastics team posted a season-high score in a 103.0-85.725 victory over the Shelbyville Golden Bears.

 

Kenzi Hoffman swept the meet, winning first place in all four events and the all-around. She scored 9.05 on vault, 8.85 on uneven bars, 9.225 on balance beam and 9.025 on the floor exercise. Her winning all-around score was 36.150. Senior Jessica Marshall placed second on beam (9.0) and in all-around (32.975). Ciarra Hough was second on floor (8.725) and third in all-around (30.275). Whitney Weileman was second on vault (8.3) and bars (8.6).Maddie Wallace and Julie Hilton tied for fourth on vault (8.15).

 

The Dragons' next meet will be Saturday's Columbus East Olympian Invitational, which will begin at noon.

 

Upcoming broadcasts

We have several broadcasts coming up at HancockCountySports.com:

FRIDAY: New Palestine at Mt. Vernon BOYS, 7:10 p.m.
The Dragons come in with a 12-6 mark. The Marauders are 12-5. NP won a 61-55 matchup for the county title, but these two teams are evenly-matched and have some outstanding inside-outside games. Positioning in the HHC is on the line.
SATURDAY: Mt. Vernon GIRLS in regional, 9:30 a.m. and (if necessary), 6:30 p.m.
The #2 Marauders face Lebanon in the opening round of the Lebanon regional. Should MV (20-5) win, the Marauders will face either #8 Edgewood or Tri-West in the title game.
TUESDAY: Eastern Hancock at Morristown BOYS, 7:10 p.m.
A preview of the Mid-Hoosier Conference for the Royals. Fresh off a double 50-point game with Victor Vincz setting EH's school record with 52 and Alexandria's Mitch Yeagy scoring 51, the Royals head to Morristown and face one of the area's most dynamic players in Dylan Langkabel. Join Andrew Smith & Chris Lambert for the LIVE audio webcasts of all of these games at HancockCountySports.com, the only place in Hancock County to get LIVE, professional broadcast coverage of local sports.

Dragons, Royals win GBB games

New Palestine and Eastern Hancock both won close girls basketball games against Shelby County foes tonight.

The Dragons had their first victory over a ranked team this season, beating 2A No. 4 Triton Central 61-55.

NP used a 26-point performance from senior Bethany Murrell -- the Dragons' season-best performance -- and a big first half from 3-point range, to build an early double-digit lead, one they'd never relinquish.

NP hit six first-half 3-pointers and tied its a season high with 42 points in the first half, building a lead that was as high as 13 points, and was 11 before the Tigers hit a disputed 3-pointer before the halftime buzzer.

Murrell scored 18 first-half points. Guard Tori Stephenson had eight points in the opening 16 minutes.

TC used its balance to cut the deficit as close as 2 in the second half, but the Dragons were able to use strong ballhandling -- they committed a season-low nine turnovers -- and free throw shooting to salt the game away.

Abby Seifert had 13 points and eight rebounds for the Dragons. Stephenson finished with eight points and guard Kyleigh Smock had seven.

Both teams shot well early -- both hit 50 percent in the first half. NP shot 43 percent for the game, TC 48 percent.

Heather Mink led TC with 16 points. Emily Alfrey had 13 points. Freshman Samantha Dewey scored 11.

NP is now 7-9 on the season against one of the state's toughest schedules. Knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten, TC is now 12-1. The Dragons' next game will be Wednesday against Beech Grove. It will be the Dragons' Senior Night.

A few miles down U.S. 52, Eastern Hancock beat Morristown 34-32. Lauren Harmon hit a late 3-pointer in the final minute to put the Royals ahead. She finished with seven points and eight rebounds. Kaytlin Eastes led EH with nine points and six boards. Hannah Best added eight points and four assists.

Kiersten Schrope had seven rebounds and eight steals for EH. 

The Royals jumped ahead 11-3 after a quarter, but saw the Yellow Jackets come back and cut EH's lead to 25-24 going into the fourth quarter. 

The Royals are now 10-4 on the season. Morristown is 3-11. EH's next game is Jan. 19 at home against Cowan. It's EH's first 10-win season since 2004.

Schedule changes

Upcoming NCAA legislation that has killed the impending Hoosier Heritage Conference girls basketball classic at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Jan. 21 has also caused changes to our broadcast schedule.

We had planned to broadcast two games from the Hinkle Classic, and several games that weekend. We will continue to broadcast the Knightstown-MV boys game on Thursday, Jan. 19.

However, we have schedule changes for the rest of the weekend.
On Friday, Jan. 20, we will broadcast the Mt. Vernon at Greenfield-Central girls game, which was originally to be played at Hinkle. Because of that, we will not be able to broadcast the Eastern Hancock at Lapel game that was originally on our schedule that evening. We are no longer planning to broadcast any games on Saturday, Jan. 21 as of this time.

We are adding two games to our broadcast schedule that were not originally part of it: 
On Friday, Feb. 3, we will broadcast two games simultaneously. We've added the Senior Night for Mt. Vernon's decorated girls basketball senior class as the 3A No. 2 Marauders face 4A No. 5 North Central. Join Chris Lambert for that game, or join Andrew Smith for the Shelbyville at New Palestine boys game that night.

On Tuesday, Feb. 21, join us as Eastern Hancock's boys team visits Morristown.

Friday wrap: Heading toward county

All four Hancock County boys teams -- and one of the girls teams -- were in action at home tonight, with several big performances throughout.

Eastern Hancock 56, Knightstown 51: The Royals took an early lead and never looked back in a five-point victory. EH led by four points at the end of the first quarter and never trailed in the game. Knightstown kept within striking distance, but EH's lead was often between 3-8 points much of the night.

The game was a coming-out party for EH's Cody Clark, who had 17 points and eight rebounds and commanded the paint inside. The Royals' Jared Pyle also had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds, including 10 in the second quarter as the Royals opened up an eight-point lead -- one that would be whittled to four at halftime, but would be pushed back up to nine by the end of the third. Victor Vincz would hit four late free throws to help seal the victory, among his nine points.

Clay Ratliff led three Panthers in double-figures with 16 points. Freshman point guard Jake Kwisz had 13 for Knightstown.

EH (4-2) is back in action Saturday night at Cambridge City Lincoln, and then again Tuesday at Blue River. Knightstown is now 1-5.

New Palestine 73, Morristown 61: The Dragons used a big second quarter to build a 31-19 halftime lead and pull away, using three double-figure performances.

Dragon forward Michael Morris -- their leading scorer on the year -- had a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds. He hit 7-of-9 shots from the floor and was a perfect 5-of-5 from the line. Justin Ikerd had his second straight double-figure game with 18 points, hitting four 3-pointers. Josh Penley had 17 points and three assists, while Reid Clark added eight points and five boards. Solomon Haynes added seven assists and six rebounds.

The Dragons shot 50 percent from the floor and won despite a 30-point effort by Morristown's Dylan Langkabel.

NP is now 4-1, and will be back in action Saturday night at Franklin Central. The Dragons then will travel to Beech Grove Wednesday evening, for a game we will broadcast on HancockCountySports.com.

Mt. Vernon 77, Shelbyville 38: The Marauders led 51-12 at the half and extended the lead into the second half. C.J. Coleman led MV with 20 points in the victory, which gave the Marauders a 3-2 record on the year and a 1-1 HHC mark.

The Marauders next play in the county tournament Dec. 27. They will visit Eastern Hancock in the morning semifinals, and then host the championship/consolation round that evening.

Yorktown 84, Greenfield-Central 31: The Tigers built a big lead and handed the Cougars their seventh straight loss. G-C is now also 0-2 in HHC play. The Cougars' next game will be Dec. 27 in the Hancock County Tournament semifinal round at New Palestine.

Jordan Keener led G-C with 12 points. Cole Olesky added six points. Two Tigers scored 17 points to lead Yorktown.

The county championship games from Mt. Vernon that evening will be broadcast live at HancockCountySports.com

GIRLS
Knightstown 46, Eastern Hancock 39: Knightstown was able to pull away from a close game late and hand the Royals their second loss of the year in eight games.

The game was a see-saw contest early, but Knightstown took the lead for good in the second quarter, feeding sophomore post player Emily Thomas. She finished with 14 points, scoring 10 in the middle quarters.

EH was led by Kristen Eischen and Hannah Best, who each scored 11 points. Best hit two 3-pointers to help lead a Royal comeback. EH tried to rally from a late 11-point deficit, led by Best's second 3 of the game, but the Panthers were able to hold on. Eischen had 10 rebounds to complete a double-double. Kaytlin Eastes had seven rebounds and five blocked shots, and Kiersten Schrope had six steals for the Royals.

EH is now 6-2 on the year. Knightstown is 6-3. The Royals next play Saturday afternoon at Northeastern.