By Noah Dalton
TERRE HAUTE – Mitchell High School suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday, being defeated 46-34 by Bloomfield following a second-half surge by the Cardinals.
The two teams entered halftime with an even score of 21 a piece after a back-and-forth first half, which saw the two sides exchanging the advantage on multiple occasions.
It was in the third quarter when Bloomfield was able to separate themselves, outscoring the Bluejackets 13-6 behind the shooting of sophomore Blake Neill, who made four of his five attempts in the period, including three straight threes.
“He’s great. He’s a great high school basketball player. You look at all of the underclassmen accolades for the state of Indiana, Blake Neill’s name is on all of it, and there’s a reason for that,” said Mitchell head coach Jackson Ryan.
“Very smart kid, coaches kid, so you know he’s smart. Great shooter and if you just give him an inch he’s going to make you pay and that’s what he did, especially in third quarter. I still feel like we did a good job on it. But, he gets rid of the basketball and we think ‘okay, good. I can relax’ and that’s what he means.”
After playing them close in the first half, Ryan felt the team went away from what had worked for them previously over the course of the second half, getting away from the team-centered playstyle that helped them earn their first win on Tuesday against Springs Valley.
“Extremely disappointed. In the first half, I didn’t feel like we played well and still to be in the ball game and be tied. I tried to really challenge them at halftime I felt like we played hard, just not smart basketball,” he said. “I think we got a little selfish especially offensively down the stretch versus Bloomfield, who were disciplined, knew where the ball needed to go when it needed to go.”
While Neill, who finished with 29 points, thrived shooting the ball in the second half, the Bluejackets struggled to get looks to fall, shooting just 26% from the field (5/19) in the final two quarters. Comparatively, the Cardinals netted 66% (8/12) of their looks during that span.
The frustration of a tough shooting day bled into other areas of the game, impacting the team’s performance on both ends of the floor, Ryan said.
“When the ball is going in the basket, you play defense harder. You crash the offensive glass. There’s a lot of things that are easier when the ball is going in the hole and you’re gonna have days like this. Can you grind out a game against a very good Bloomfield team and find a way to win? Today the answer is no. So, it’ll be interesting to see if we can grow from this adversity,” he said.
Last season, Mitchell battled adversity in many of their matchups, losing some close games including back-to-back conference battles against Perry Central and West Washington by just one point. The way the team dealt with tough spots was a point of focus coming out of those games, with Ryan hoping to see improvement in that area over the season.
“We’ve just gotta grow. We kind of hoped we were past this. When adversity hits, when things get tough, can we come together and find a way to win? And, we didn’t,” Ryan said.
Looking ahead, the Bluejackets, now 1-1 this season, will next play Friday, when they take on Crawford County (0-2), with another game the following day against Eastern Greene (0-2).
“We’ve got to lean on our leadership. Come in Monday, I know Crawford County and Eastern Greene are going to be very tough, very physical teams. We’ve got a week to prepare for it, so hopefully we can come together and find a way to win.”
Stats
Mitchell
- Austin Mosier – 15 points, 5/11 shooting, 0/0 FT, 2 rebounds
- Dawson Irwin – 6 points, 3/10 shooting, 0/0 FT, 1 rebound
- Kale England – 2 points, 1/3 shooting, 0/0 FT, 0 rebounds
- Ben Seitzinger – 3 points, 1/3 shooting, 1/2 FT, 6 rebounds
- Gavin Robinson – 2 points, 0/1 shooting, 2/2 FT, 0 rebounds
- Bryson Shoults – 4 points, 1/6 shooting, 1/2 FT, 1 rebound
- Aiden Pridemore – 2 points, 1/5 shooting, 0/0 FT, 1 rebound
- Nate Robertson – 2 points, 1/2 shooting, 0/0 FT, 1 rebound
- Carl Chenault – 0 points, 0/0 shooting, 0/0 FT, 1 rebound
Bloomfield
- Kellen Luse – 0 points, 0/1 shooting, 0/0 FT, 0 rebounds
- Tucker Lent – 4 points, 1/4 shooting, 2/2 FT, 10 rebounds
- Lance Workman – 4 points, 1/6 shooting, 1/2 FT, 3 rebounds
- Hunter Abner – 6 points, 3/5 shooting, 0/0 FT, 2 rebounds
- Owen Medina – 2 points, 1/2 shooting, 0/0 FT, 2 rebounds
- Blake Neill – 29 points, 10/15 shooting, 5/7 FT, 12 rebounds
- Tyler Patterson – 1 point, 0/4 shooting, 1/2 FT, 0 rebounds
