BY MIKE RILEY
NEW ALBANY — Donnie Hale had his usual spot in the starting lineup on Saturday as New Albany played host to Jasper at the Doghouse.
And at the start of the second half, he came to play. And his teammates realized it.
In what looked like an upset in the making in the first half quickly turned into a blowout as the Class 4A No.6 Bulldogs exploded for a 26-6 third quarter in a 72-54 victory.
“(Hale) really had a great third quarter,” said New Albany coach Jim Shannon. “He didn’t play bad in the first half, we just had trouble finding him. We need good inside play to open things up outside.”
Hale, who has signed with Purdue, had eight points before halftime as New Albany (11-2) held a 37-33 lead. He had six straight points to open the third quarter including a dunk which led to a Jasper timeout.
Adam Knies scored for Jasper (8-6) following the timeout. By the time the Wildcats called their next timeout, with 2:58 left in the quarter the Bulldogs had rolled off 10 straight points.
Again, the Wildcats answered the timeout with a basket, this time by Casey Nelson. But if there was any doubt of the Bulldogs mission it was erased quickly with back to back 3-pointers by Jordy Martin.
The blowout third quarter was the exact opposite of the first half in which the Bulldogs led only 24-23 after a quarter. Both teams had a fondness from behind the arc as they combined for nine treys with Jasper hitting 5-of-6 while New Albany was 4-of-9.
“They shot lights out in that first quarter and I felt that although our backcourt pressure was good — we didn’t do a good job in the half court,” Shannon said. “We did a better job in the second half.”
For the game, the Bulldogs forced 18 turnovers while coughing it up only eight times themselves.
“That may have been the difference in the game,” Shannon said. “I know we turned them over quite a bit.”
Hale finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds with 10 points and six boards coming in that decisive third quarter. Chris Whitehead finished with 15 points and Morgan Toliver came off the bench for 13, nine of those before halftime.
“That’s normal for him (Toliver),” Shannon said. “Tonight him and Dylan McDaniel both came in and did a good job for us.”
Caleb Begle led Jasper with 19 points, but only three after halftime. Nelson finished with 11 points.
And now the season heads into the home stretch, with only six games remaining before the start of sectional play.
“We just want to ‘tune’ the things we’ve been doing because we’ve been playing pretty well,” Shannon said. “And you want to try to avoid sickness and injury. We’ll continue to practice hard, but not as long. We want our intensity to stay the same.
“We have one double weekend left, then we’ll start resting it a bit so we can get our March legs.”
That double weekend starts at Providence on Friday. The Bulldogs then travel to Jennings County for a Hoosier Hills conference game on Saturday.
JASPER 23 10 6 15—54
NEW ALBANY 24 13 26 9—72
Jasper (8-6) Sander 4, Knies 4, Nelson 11, Begle 19, Eckert 6, Rogers 6, Rumbach 4, Krempp 0, Bawel 0, Nixon 0.
New Albany (11-2) Rohlfing 5, Hale 20, Whitehead 15, Benson 0, Martin 9, Stotts 3, McDaniel 5, Toliver 13, Meyer 0, Newbolt 2, Threatt 0.
Three-Point Goals- Jasper 9 (Begle 4, Eckert, Rogers 2, Nelson); New Albany 7 (Martin 3, Rohlfing, Hale, Whitehead, Stotts).
Rebounds- Jasper 29 (Knies 10); New Albany 28 (Hale 10).
Turnovers- Jasper 18; New Albany 8.
Junior Varsity New Albany 33 Jasper 26.
