HOPE
Hauser looked like it was going to end the unbeaten streak of Edinburgh early on in Friday night’s Mid-Hoosier Conference boys basketball game.
In the second quarter, though, the Lancers went on the attack. Edinburgh closed out the first half on a 13-2 run that helped them take the lead for good on the way to a 59-54 win over the Jets.
“I was concerned coming in, playing on the road, and it’d be tough to play here. It was early on that we hit some adversity,” Edinburgh coach Keith Witty said. “We kept telling them to dig at it and work at it. We started getting out in transition and getting guys some open looks, and that was a big adjustment for us in the second quarter.”
Friday night’s matchup was a little bit of reunion between Hauser coach Brent Keck and Witty. Keck was once the head coach at Perry Meridian, with Witty as one of his assistants.
“Keith did a great job for us at Perry Meridian. He’s got a great basketball mind and a great rapport with his kids,” Keck said. “He’s done a phenomenal job at Edinburgh and putting his stamp on things. I think they’ve got a really good team and he has done a good job with them.”
The 6-0 start by the Lancers is their best in over 40 years; they have also already matched their win total from last season.
“Our guys are competitive guys. We took a lot of lumps last year,” Witty said. “The guys were thrown into the fire, and they kind of came in this year with a chip on their shoulder and wanted to make a difference.”
Hauser took advantage of Edinburgh’s slow start to take a 10-6 lead, but the Lancers closed the gap to 12-10 after the first quarter.
After the Jets grew the lead to 22-16 in the second quarter, Chase Littlejohn hit consecutive 3-points to tie the game at 22-22. The run wasn’t over for Edinburgh, as Isaac Roberts converted a three-point play and Caleb Dewey scored to extend the lead to 27-22. The bleeding for the Jets stopped when Bryce Bates converted two free throws, but a layup from Travis Jones right before the first-half buzzer gave the Lancers a 29-24 lead.
“We gotten down in a couple games, and tonight we got a little bit too complacent for my liking,” Witty said. “Once we got back to what we were capable of doing, it was good.”
Hauser couldn’t find a way to close on the Edinburgh deficit until a little over three minutes left in the third quarter, but then the Jets went on a 7-0 run to cut the Edinburgh lead to 38-37. The Lancers bounced back to build the lead to 43-38 heading into the fourth.
The Lancers had their biggest lead of the game at 50-41 in the fourth quarter, and then a Noah Detling 3-pointer put the final nail in the coffin to secure the win.
Jones scored 19 points to lead the way for Edinburgh, which travels to Monrovia tonight. Detling (13 points) and Roberts (11) both finished in double figures as well.