By Noah Dalton
MITCHELL – Mitchell High School was defeated on Thursday in Patoka Lake Atheltic Conference play by Crawford County, 50-25, after a slow offensive night for the Bluejackets, which was highlighted by untimely turnovers.
After a slow start for both sides in the first quarter, Mitchell found themselves within just one basket of the Wolfpack, holding them to just seven points for much of the first quarter and getting two baskets of their own from Gwen Eastridge.
They went on to finish the quarter trailing 13-4 after giving up six unanswered to end the first. The second quarter’s result was almost identical, with Crawford County outscoring the Bluejackets again 14-6.
A key factor in Mitchell’s first-half deficit was turnovers. In the first half, they turned the ball over 23 times to the Wolfpack, with many of those giveaways leading to points on the other end.
“A few passing errors, a few costly turnovers. A few travels that we’ve just got to clean up. We’ve got to jump-stop, we keep preaching jump-stops. But, all positive from here, and I know that’s probably crazy to say losing by 25, but I thought we played hard and I thought we gave great effort,” said Bluejackets’ head coach Dakota Brasher.
Brasher credited Crawford County, citing their experience as one of their strengths in the matchup, also noting his team’s effort and physicality on the night as one of their strong points.
“I think we played hard. We played tough. We played as physical as we’ve played all year. That’s a really good basketball team. They’ve got they’ve got some girls, they’re older, much older than us. Credit to them. They’ve got some really, really skilled girls out there,” he said.
In previous matchups this season, Mitchell have struggled to manage turnovers, particularly as opposing defenses have ramped up the pressure against them with full-court presses.
Against the Wolfpack, Brasher felt his team showed improvement in the way they attacked the full-court defense, ultimately struggling against the team’s length at times throughout the game.
“Their length really bothered us, and they’re there their pressure bothered us at times,” he said.
“I do think we broke the press well. We’re in the right spots. We had to make some adjustments to our press break to help with that, but the fundamentals are coming together as far as being able to handle pressure, but they are long, they’re physical, they’re athletic, and ultimately, us being inexperienced and young, it bothered us at times.”
Jillian Bond was the top scorer for the Bluejackets with nine points, most of which came from the free-throw line, where she tallied five makes on eight attempts. She also finished with 10 rebounds, leading the team in that category.
Also scoring for Mitchell were Eastridge with six points, Paisley Modglin with five, Jorja Lamm with three and Briley Dicks with two.
The Bluejackets, now 1-12 on the year, will next play on Tuesday, when they’ll travel to Shoals to take on the Jug Rox (1-6).
