by
Richie Hall
Sports Editor
Hamilton County Reporter
Hamilton Southeastern got a wake-up call during the first half of its Senior Night game during Pike.
The Red Devils were tied with the Class 4A No. 5 Royals at halftime, but Southeastern woke up in a big way in the second half. HSE outscored Pike 23-2 in the third quarter and rolled to a 61-36 victory in the Royals’ final game of the regular season.
The Red Devils led 7-4 at one point during the first period before Southeastern went on an 8-0 run. Junior Lydia Self started things with a pair of free throws, then senior Sydney Parrish and sophomore Makayla Hinshaw both hit 3-pointers.
A layin from Jaelynne Murray cut HSE’s lead to 12-9, which is where the first quarter ended. Lauren Horton tied the game with a 3-pointer to start the second, but two seniors teamed up to get the Royals back on top: Bailee Poore scored off a Lauren Morris steal.
The game went back and forth for a while until Southeastern made another 8-0 run to take a 25-18 lead. Parrish scored five points, sandwiched between a Morris 3. But Pike came back again, and used its own 7-0 run to tie the game by halftime, 25-25.
“We were stagnant on defense in the first half,” said Royals coach Chris Huppenthal. “We tried to trap and their splitting our traps, getting to the basket easy. When we go up 25-18, they score three possessions in a row. Offensively, we weren’t moving the basketball. We had some opportunities to get the basketball inside and people weren’t able to make
the pass inside.”
The Red Devils scored the first basket of the second half, but after that it was all Southeastern. The Royals went on a 23-0 run that ate up almost the entire third
quarter and gave them a 48-27 lead.
Parrish, freshman Olivia Brown and Morris each hit a triple for the first nine points of the run. Parrish totaled 11 points in the third quarter. Senior Bri Baker helped the Royals continue to cruise in the fourth period, hitting a pair of 3s in the early minutes of the quarter.
“Olivia Brown comes off the bench and does a wonderful job for us,” said Huppenthal. “Bri Baker hit a couple 3s. The difference was that we just woke up. We’re not at a time of the year where you can sleepwalk through any part of the game. It’s Game 22 and we just got to do a better job preparing ourselves when we walk out of the locker room.”
Two seniors, appropriately, led HSE in scoring. Parrish finished with 24 points, including three 3-pointers, and reached double-double status with 10 rebounds. She also had six assists. Parrish now sits at 1,862 career points, needing seven more to match the Hamilton County girls scoring record. Morris added 10 points.
“It’s not easy being a high school athlete, going through four years of summer workouts and weight training and the season,” said Huppenthal. “It really, for all intents and purposes now has become a year-round commitment. You look at these five seniors have made that commitment. As a coach you really appreciate that about them, what they’ve done for the program. These kids are part of the legacy last year of winning a state championship, a big part of that, and that’s going to be something that they’re going to
be able to carry with them for the rest of their lives.”
Southeastern finished the regular season 20-2 and plays Carmel in the first round of the Westfield sectional next Tuesday. The Royals beat the Greyhounds 52-36 back on Nov. 29, but 4A No. 9 Carmel has been on tear as of late, winning 11 of its last 12 games.
“We know they can be dangerous,” said Huppenthal. “We know they can shoot the ball. We know their length. It’s just something that we’ve got to get ourselves ready for and again, we’ve got to be ready when we walk out of the locker room to play the game.”
