The varsity boys’ basketball team has gotten off to a stellar start to their season with a current record of 10-4. With the Franklin Central Flashes being a main rival for almost all sports at Roncalli, this rivalry was prevalent in mid-January’s back-to-back matchup.
The Royals earned only their second loss of the season to the Flashes on January 11th. These two teams had a rematch only three days later in the first round of the Marion County Tournament. Sophomore Will Hegwood contributed 10 points in the rematch at home versus Franklin Central.
“I think there was a bigger atmosphere at FC which made it harder to play on the road instead of playing at home,” Hegwood stated.
Just three days after the loss, the Flashes took their turn to travel to the Ascension St. Vincent Gymnasium on January 14th for a highly anticipated game. The Royals won with a score of 62-59. Junior Joe Taylor contributed 12 points and 8 rebounds in the redemption game.
“The mentality our team had was to play aggressive and not let FC come into our house and beat us for a second time, because we knew we were the better team,” Taylor said, ”The team morale was great in the 4th. Once we started to come together and play for each other, all of us started to make big plays.”
Senior Noah Schmaltz has been a big part of the winning team and contributes aggressive plays and great leadership.
”We had to go into the game with a strong mentality,” Schmaltz said. “We knew we were better than them and all of us had the confidence going into the game that we were going to win. Coach Schreiber pushed us this whole week and gave all of us the mentality that we were going to win.”
Coming into the 4th quarter, the Royals were trailing by 10 points to the Flashes and ended the game winning by 3 points. Junior Conner Kesler contributed 25 total points with 21 being solely 3rd quarter points and Senior Luke Greene added 11 points. Kesler and Hegwood both won the Gallagher’s Players of the Game. The Royals ended up with a 62-59 win which allowed them to continue on in the Marion County tournament with two more games leading up to the championship on January 18th at Southport High School.
Both games against the rival Flashes were determined by less than four points.
“After that game, we know that if we are ever down or our shots aren’t falling, we shouldn’t give up because once we start playing as a team, we are a hard team to beat,” Schmaltz said.
The Royals went on to the second round of the tournament and lost 57-37 to Pike. The team lost a hard fought game to New Pal 64-62 on January 24th, a possible sectional opponent.
