Edinburgh’s Landen Burton, right, puts the first two points on the board during Tuesday’s sectional opener against Trinity Lutheran Tuesday March 1, 2022.
Greg Jones | For The RepublicBy Sam Findley
For The Republic
EDINBURGH — In a single-elimination tournament, anything is on the table, and fans see feel-good story upsets all the time. For half of Tuesday night’s game at Class A No. 8 Edinburgh, that upset felt very possible for Trinity Lutheran.
But not all feel-good stories end happily, and a 10-0 run in the third quarter was enough for the favored Lancers to scrape out a 57-38 win in the opening round of the sectional.
Edinburgh’s pivotal run started with Caleb Dewey’s bucket at the rack in the opening possession of the second half and ended with a Dewey free throw. The Cougars’ drought ended with Jacob Conrad’s bucket at the rim, but the momentum was insurmountable.
“We played better in space, and us picking the pressure up getting some outlet passes getting some easy layups,” Edinburgh coach Keith Witty said of the key surge. “I felt our guys were really nervous for whatever reason going into this game, which they shouldn’t have been, but I felt like nerves played a factor in the first half and then once we kind of pushed out there that second half, I felt we kind of settled down a little bit and we got to a little bit more of ourselves.”
Conrad led Trinity (9-15) with 17 points. Dewey led Edinburgh (20-3) with 17 points, and Riley Palmeter added 14.
The Lancers took an early 4-0 lead when Riley Palmeter picked the pocket of a Cougar and found Jarrett Turner in transition for a layup. Trinity’s Kade Hill cleaned up an offensive rebound for two points, but Dewey responded with a rim-grazer dunk. The two squads went back and forth, with Trinity extending its lead to 11-8 at one point before Turner scored two fast-break baskets to put Edinburgh ahead 12-11 after one quarter.
The Cougars’ Jacob Conrad played bully ball for an easy two inside to put Edinburgh back in a 15-13 hole. Travis Jones later put Edinburgh back in front with his own putback, and Landen Burton’s late 3 gave the Lancers a narrow 21-18 edge heading into the break.
After the lopsided third quarter, all the Lancers had to do was hold on for eight minutes. Palmeter did his part, scoring six points in the fourth quarter while providing a pesky presence on defense, jumping passing lanes for multiple steals to help bury the Cougars.
Palmeter’s two-way versatility and competitive edge were a key factor in the Lancers’ victory, especially in transition.
“Riley is a heck of an athlete and he doesn’t always get a ton of credit for it,” Witty said. “But strong kid, a kid that doesn’t want to lose. … He just brings up that competitive edge to us. And in a situation like that, we really need him to find that edge.”
The Lancers now face Crothersville (3-19), a team they beat by 40 early last month, in a Friday semifinal game.
Witty was happy to get the first postseason victory in hand.
“As veteran as we are, we’re not tournament veteran, so I think getting this first one out of the way against what I feel like is a really tough game, hopefully it gives us a little bit of ‘all right, we can do this,’” Witty said. “We’ve talked about it, we know we can do it and finish off what we’ve really wanted to do all year.”
