New Albany pounds Floyd Central 74-50

Bulldogs dominate interior department

17 offensive boards offset chilly three-point shooting
new albany 74, floyd central 50
By Tom Whitus • Special to The Courier-Journal • December 13, 2008

New Albany hit the boards to make up for lackluster shooting, and the Bulldogs pulled away in the second half to beat rival Floyd Central 74-50 in their boys’ basketball home opener last night.

Donnie Hale had 22 points and 15 rebounds for the Bulldogs, who pulled down 17 offensive rebounds to help ease the sting of 4-for-21 three-point shooting.

“I thought both teams played hard,” New Albany coach Jim Shannon said. “At times that can make it ugly. The difference was our interior game.”

New Albany (3-0, all in the Hoosier Hills Conference) won its 14th straight home game and improved its streak over Floyd Central (1-2, 0-1) to six. The Bulldogs, No.7 in Class 4-A, have won 26 consecutive regular-season games and 17 straight conference contests.

Leading 33-20 after an uneven first half, the Bulldogs came out firing in the third quarter. A 6-0 run to start the period, capped by Hale’s basket at the 6:30 mark, made it 39-20. That was part of a 10-2 run capped by Chris Whitehead’s fast-break layup with 5:10 left.

“We were trying to speed the tempo up with our press,” Shannon said.

The lead swelled to 55-28 on a rare three-pointer by the Bulldogs, reserve center Dylan McDaniel doing the honors with 1:20 left in the quarter. He added two free throws with 1.7 seconds remaining to make it 59-33 going into the fourth quarter.

The game started with the look of a New Albany blowout. Brett Martin, a 6-foot-5 forward, scored four points and Hale added a basket, an offensive rebound and an assist in the opening two minutes as the Bulldogs went up 6-0. Over the next two minutes, Martin had a block and a basket with an assist from Hale, who scored at the four-minute mark to make it 12-2.

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