By Noah Dalton
Despite an impressive fourth quarter, where they outscored Eastern Greene by 12 to nearly come back from a 16 point deficit, as well as a season-high 26 points from senior guard Mylea Slone, Mitchell High School came up just short of picking up the win on the road Thursday night, losing the game 46-42.
Mitchell head coach Tim Haworth said he has asked his team to focus on improvement over the last month, not their overall record.
Prior to that period, the team had lost 5 games in a row, many of which were blowouts. Though their record since wouldn’t necessarily indicate great improvement on its own, 1-3, they’ve remained competitive against strong competition in each game, which is a huge step forward from where they had been.
“We’ve been talking the last month about, let’s don’t worry about record, let’s just work on getting better. And I think they’re buying in. I mean, it’s hard it’s hard to see us fight like this and not get rewarded with the W. But on the flip side of it, from where we’ve been and where some of these girls experience wise have been, we’re making some headway,” he said.
Both teams battled evenly in the first quarter, with the game kicking-off with some lights out shooting from both sides
Each team made their first three shot attempts of the game, including both teams nailing their first two three-pointers to leave the score tied at eight early. The Bluejackets were able to briefly gain a four point advantage, before a 5-0 run from the Thunderbirds put them up by one to end the first. Slone finished the quarter with 10 of her team’s 12 points to lead all scorers.
The second quarter was not quite as close, with Eastern Greene starting the period off with a six-point run to extend their lead to seven, before a basket from Brooklyn Peterson stopped the bleeding.
The Thunderbirds’ offense continued to role in the second, scoring 10 more points before the quarter was over, with Mitchell only making one more field goal, an inside attempt from Jillian Bond.
Very quickly, a one point deficit for the Bluejackets ballooned to a 13 point hole they would have to dig themselves out of in the second half.
Eastern Greene was on fire from three in the first half, making 7-10 shots from deep in the first two periods. Haworth felt that strong shooting stretch from them against Mitchell’s zone coverage ultimately made the difference in the game.
“We were a little skeptical about starting in man because of matchup situations. Well, okay, that wasn’t a good plan because they came out and they were hitting on all cylinders from three. You know, that was the difference in the game was their first quarter, second quarter of three point shooting,” Haworth said.
The third quarter was a return to form somewhat for the Bluejackets, who were able to get back much closer to their first quarter performance offensively. They managed to score eight in the period, though they were still outscored by three, extended the Thunderbirds’ lead to 16 by the end of the quarter.
Mitchell began chipping away at that lead in the fourth, starting the quarter off with a run of six unanswered points. Eastern Greene’s Kenady Hudson connected on a shot attempt for her team’s first points of the period, but the Bluejackets answered strongly once again, scoring eight points unanswered.
After being down almost 20, Mitchell only trailed by four with around 3:30 left to play. Bond, Peterson and Slone were huge for the Bluejackets during this comeback stretch, combining for all 14 of the team’s points. Bond had six, Peterson had two and Slone had six.
Bianca Wyatt sank two free-throws to put the Thunderbirds back up by six with just over a minute left to play.
The next points of the game would not be scored until Slone cashed a field goal attempt with just under 30 seconds left to play to bring the lead back down to four. Keylee Hudson was intentionally fouled and headed to the line for a one-and-one, of which she missed the first attempt. Peterson grabbed the board and passed the ball up ahead to Slone, who drove straight to the basket for a layup to make it a two-point game with 11 seconds left to play.
Slone was forced to intentionally foul to stop the clock after the ball was inbounded to Keylee Hudson, for her fifth and final foul, fouling her out of the game with 3 seconds left to play.
Keylee Hudson then sank both clutch free-throws to seal the game for Eastern Greene.
Slone finished the night leading all scorers with 26 points, shooting 58% from the floor. She also made 4 threes, shooting 57% from downtown.
Once again, Bond, Peterson and Slone carried the brunt of the scoring load for the Bluejackets, with the three combining for 40 of the team’s 42 points, with Zoey Smith scoring the team’s other two points.
In a season riddled with injuries for Mitchell, including the game against the Thunderbirds, where they were without starting guard Malaya Tanglao, who was forced to miss the game with a concussion, Haworth said their play has added some much needed stability.
“But “I’m very proud of the girls. Once again, we find ourselves down another starter. I mean, it’s the been the theme of the of the year. But boy, I thought that Zoey (Smith) and Briley (Dicks) did a heck of a job filling in. I mean, we expect what we see out of our top three. And speaking of that, Mylea had a heck of a game, she ended up with 26 points. She had an outstanding game and Brooklyn (Peterson) and Jillian (Bond), it seems like they’re taking turns as the year goes on with those three,” he said.
“(Slone) stepped up. We really needed scoring. She provided the scoring. That’s what senior leaders do. But another game, it’ll be Brooklyn’s turn or another game it’ll be Jillian’s turn. Those three, like I said, have been pretty solid all year and are still fighting, still have a will to win despite what the record is. And that’s the way I think we’re going to see it the rest of the year. So really happy with that,” he later added.
The Bluejackets’ record on the season is now 4-14. Next, they’ll travel to Paoli to take on the 11-10 Rams.
Looking ahead, Haworth said his team will need to maintain the high level of effort they’ve displayed in recent matchups, as well as avoid offensive slumps that have killed them in their last few losses.
“We’ve just got to keep plugging away. And that’s what these kids did. They showed more heart tonight. Once again, we saw in the Bloomington North game. We’ve seen it in several different aspects. If we can just stay away from some lulls offensively, it seemed like at one time we were stuck on 12 or 16 for a quarter and then once we got past that, then we got going again,” said Haworth.
Stats
Mitchell
- Mylea Slone – 26 points, 10/17 shooting, 2/3 FT, 3 rebounds
- Jillian Bond – 8 points, 3/4 shooting, 2/4 FT, 6 rebounds
- Brooklyn Peterson – 6 points, 3/8 shooting, 0/2 FT, 8 rebounds
- Zoey Smith – 2 points, 1/1 shooting, 0/0 FT, 1 rebound
- Briley Dicks – 0 points, 0/1 shooting, 0/0 FT, 3 rebounds
Eastern Greene
- Keylee Hudson – 16 points, 6/15 shooting, 2/6 FT, 5 rebounds
- Bianca Wyatt – 11 points, 3/6 shooting, 2/2 FT, 1 rebound
- Mallorie Elliott – 9 points, 4/8 shooting, 1/2 FT, 7 rebounds
- Kenady Hudson – 8 points, 3/9 shooting, 0/0 FT, 4 rebounds
- Chyann Padgett – 2 points, 1/5 shooting, 0/2 FT, 2 rebounds
