Knights finish year with 4th championship

LIBERTY, Ind. – A nearly perfect calendar year of 2014 for Northeastern boys basketball ended with another first Tuesday night.

The state-ranked Knights won the Union County Holiday Tournament for the first time with a 80-62 win over Monroe Central on Wilbur A. Curry Court.

In so doing, the Knights added to an unbeaten start to this season, and the Class 2A second-ranked Knights are now 9-0.

This title followed calendar year championships in the Wayne County Tournament, the Tri-Eastern Conference, and the Class 2A sectional for the first time in school history.

These teams had played in the regular season opener at Northeastern, the Knights won decisively.

Not so this time.

Monroe Central (6-4) battled well from the outset, the game was tied at 19 after the first quarter. With the score tied at 23 early in the second quarter, back-to-back treys by DeShawn Hamption and Tyler Smith put the Knights up by six.

But the Golden Bears tied it at 30 right before halftime, then Tyler Smith drained another trey for NHS to put the Knights up 33-30 at intermission.

Northeastern took command in the third quarter, scoring 25 points to lead 58-45. Tyler Smith scored 12 of his game-high 27 points in that quarter alone.

"We needed to start out the third quarter well, and I think we did that, and we were able to get the job done," NHS coach Brent Ross said.

"At the start of the calendar year, we talked about C14, winning championships during this calendar year, and we were able to get all four. Now we can start to work on 2015."

Grant Esposito, who was named tournament MVP, added 19 points for NHS, and Craig Dingwerth had 14. Dingwerth was also named to the all-tournament team.

Host Union County lost to state-ranked Triton Central 64-56 in the fifth place game earlier Tuesday. Jamison Walters of the Patriots was named to the all-tournament team.

For Monroe Central, Dustin Brown had 19 points in the title game, while Beau Combs had 16 and Cody Wolf 13.

Northeastern will now meet another state-ranked team, Hagerstown, Jan. 8 at 7:30 p.m., in the first round of the Wayne County Tournament.

Monroe Central hosts Class 3A Delta Saturday night, then meets Winchester in the Randolph County Tournament at Randolph Southern.

KNIGHTS 80, GOLDEN BEARS 62

Monroe Central 19 11 15 17 - 62

Northeastern 19 14 25 22 - 80

Northeastern (9-0) T. Smith 27, Dingwerth 14, Esposito 19, Claypoole 6, Shepherd 0, R. Smith 7, Reynolds 0, Hampton 6, Green 0, Rice 0, Auger 0, West 1.

Monroe Central (6-4) - Combs 16, Cody Wolf 13, I. Nash 6, Brown 19, S. Nash 2, Cole Wolf 0, Blevins 6, Conklin 0, Smithson 0.

Union County Tournament