NEW ALBANY — The pressure of perfection has been hanging heavy over the New Albany boys’ basketball team, leading some observers to think the Bulldogs had lost their magic touch somewhere along the way.

But when it came time to finish a second straight unbeaten regular season, New Albany was nearly as flawless as their record.

The Class 4A No. 2 Bulldogs got contributions from nearly the entire varsity roster and blew out Bloomington North on Friday night at The Doghouse, 62-46. It was New Albany’s 43rd straight regular-season win and sent it into the postseason, which begins Tuesday, with a perfect 20-0 record.

The rout of the Cougars couldn’t have come at a better time, as New Albany didn’t seem to be its normal dominant self in recent wins over 10-10 Jasper (58-54), Bedford North Lawrence (50-42), Evansville Central (58-43) and Indianapolis Arlington (72-61). In each of those games, the Bulldogs scored below their 72.6 average and had trouble shaking off foes that had more than 10 losses this season.

“The pressure has been mounting,” said New Albany coach Jim Shannon, whose team has gone a perfect 7-0 in Hoosier Hills Conference play the last three seasons and has not lost a regular-season game since Feb. 21, 2007. “I felt that put a lot of that on the players. Tonight, we played the way we are capable of playing. We started well with the seniors, and once we put the regular starters in they got after it.”

In their final home game, Shannon opted to begin with seniors TeNale Roland, Brett Martin, Erik Winburn and Taylor Klein, along with junior center Donnie Hale. It was an unorthodox lineup, but the seniors got the Bulldogs off to a hot start by taking turns delivering the ball to the one player not in their grade.

Hale took New Albany’s first five shots, easily scoring on a solid feed from Roland and lobs from Klein and Winburn. By the time Hale was finished, the Bulldogs led 10-2 and had allowed only a single field-goal attempt by overwhelmed North.

The Cougars gave back with their best shot over the final four minutes of the first period, getting a 3-pointer from Julian Boatner and two more 3s from Jim Hurt. A jumper from Boatner and a drive by Zoul Ballman gave North a one-point lead on two occasions.

But if it looked like New Albany was going to be in another dogfight, it took just another three minutes to change that perception.

The two regular starters bumped for their senior teammates — Chris Whitehead and Jordy Martin — came and turned things around for good. Whitehead hit a 3 to give New Albany a 17-15 lead at the end of the first quarter, while Martin found a spot and stuck with it. He hit all three of his 3-point tries in the second period and that, coupled with more solid inside work from Hale and Brett Martin, keyed a 21-4 Bulldog run that North looked powerless to stop.

“Brett and Donnie have gotten it done all year,” said Shannon. “But it takes good guard play to them the ball. And we got good guard play all night tonight. I thought we played great.”

The extended outburst continued into the third, where New Albany scored the first nine points — all of which came from Hale and Brett Martin — to go ahead 44-19. Back-to-back 3s from Whitehead and Roland extended the margin to 50-23 with 3:29 left in the quarter. From there, the Bulldogs simply cruised to a home win that made them 46-1 over the past two seasons, the only loss coming to eventual-state champ Brownsburg in last season’s Class 4A semistate.

Hale and Brett Martin — who celebrated Senior Night with a huge dunk in the third quarter — each scored 16 points to lead New Albany, which saw eight players find the scoreboard in the win.

Boatner paced Bloomington North with 16 points.

The problem, of course, with a regular-season streak is that the regular season ends before the biggest prize is awarded — the state title. When the final buzzer went off on Friday, Shannon and the Bulldogs were ready to move on.

“Now that this is over, we need to drop all this,” said Shannon. “It’s a new season on Tuesday and everyone is 0-0. We’re going to put this streak thing aside.”



BLOOM. NORTH 15 4 10 17—46

NEW ALBANY 17 18 21 6—62

Bloomington North (8-12) — Boatner 16, Ballman 4, Pittman 7, Hurt 6, Stanger 0, Lewis 2, Basye 0, Santarossa 6, Brown 3, Pokral 2.

New Albany (20-0) — Roland 9, Winburn 0, Klein 0, B. Martin 16, Hale 16, Whitehead 6, Benson 1, Tolliver 2, McDaniel 3, J. Martin 9.

Three-point field goals — Bloomington North 6 (Boatner 2, Hurt 2, Brown, Pittman); New Albany 7 (J. Martin 3, Whitehead 2, Roland, McDaniel).

Rebounds — Bloomington North 15 (Santarossa 4); New Albany 19 (Hale, B. Martin 4).

Turnovers — Bloomington North 14, New Albany 8.