By Noah Dalton
LINTON – Mitchell High School traveled to Linton on Friday to take on the #5 ranked Miners in a rematch from last season’s sectional semifinals, where the Bluejackets were eliminated, by a final score of 74-42.
Though this season’s meeting, yielded the same result on the box score, with Mitchell losing by a final score of 60-48, they competed much more closely with Linton-Stockton, who were last year’s 2A State Championship Runners-Up.
The Bluejackets finished the first quarter with a 15-11 lead over the Miners, with the two sides trading the advantage back and forth for much of the second half.
It wasn’t until the final two minutes of the second quarter that either side was able to amass a lead larger than six points, with Linton finishing the half on a 13-4 run, granting them an eight-point lead at the buzzer sounded to end the first half.
Turnovers were the key to the Miner’s success in closing the half, forcing nine giveaways in the period, which was more than Mitchell suffered in the other three quarters combined.
Bluejackets’ head coach Jackson Ryan said Linton’s physicality and pressure defensively contributed to Mitchell’s struggles in the quarter.
“I think their pressure and I felt like they got in there. They got into us a little bit physically and we didn’t react the right way. We have to figure out and adjust to how the game is being called. If they’re grabbing our jersey and if they’re getting into us, we need to do the same on the other end, and we just didn’t react the right way on that. So again, that’s that’s probably the biggest thing that that we need to work on,” Ryan said.
“We preach being tough and together. I think that’s kind of our unofficial slogan for this team. That four or five-minute span there in the second quarter, we didn’t execute offensively. Defensively, they got a couple of easy baskets. Whether that be off our turnovers or a couple of blown assignments in the half court, against a quality team on the road you just can’t do that and expect to win the game.”
Despite the result, Ryan was proud of the way his team played for much of the game, saying they’ll need to grow from the mistakes that he felt ultimately cost them this matchup if they want to beat this team in a potential postseason rematch in the future.
“There were good things and bad things to take from tonight. They’re a very good, winning program. They know how to win and you look at the history of the last decade-plus, they just know how to win ballgames and that’s where we’re trying to go as a program,” he said.
“They played a complete game, and we played about 80% of a complete game. The second quarter, the last four or five minutes of the game, we shot ourselves in the foot and that ended up being the difference in the ballgame. And that’s something we’ve got to learn from and we’ve got to grow from.”
Austin Mosier was the leading scorer for the Bluejackets, racking up 15 points on 50% shooting from the field, draining two threes. The Miners were led in scoring by Paul Oliver, who tallied 20 points on eight makes from the field.
It will be a short turnaround for Mitchell, who will play the following night, taking on Salem (0-3) at The Hive.
When the two teams squared off last season, the Lions emerged victorious, in a game that the Bluejackets controlled much of.
Mitchell began the game on an 11-0 run, ultimately bringing a 13-point lead into halftime, before allowing Salem to re-enter the game in the second half, eventually losing 52-48.
This time around, Ryan won’t be thinking much about last year’s game, feeling that his team has taken huge strides in the time since their last matchup.
“Good news for us tonight, it’s a quick turnaround and another opportunity to come home and play. I think we can really use that home crowd after tonight, so it’s a huge game for us. It’s a get-back game and get-right game. Similar to Springs Valley, I don’t want what happened last year to be on our minds because we’re pretty much a different team this year and I hope we come out with a chip on our shoulder after tonight,” he said.
They’re very well-coached. They got a new coach in there, he’s young but a very good coach. They’re a very physical team, so we’ve got our work cut out for us.”
Stats
Mitchell
- Austin Mosier: 15 points, 5/10 shooting, 2/4 FT, 2 rebounds
- Dawson Irwin: 4 points, 2/5 shooting, 0/0 FT, 5 rebounds
- Ben Seitzinger: 7 points, 3/6 shooting, 1/2 FT, 3 rebounds
- Kale England: 6 points, 3/8 shooting, 0/0 FT, 3 rebounds
- Gavin Robinson: 8 points, 3/6 shooting, 1/2 FT, 4 rebounds
- Bryson Shoults: 2 points, 1/4 shooting, 0/0 FT, 1 rebound
- Aiden Pridemore: 2 points, 1/1 shooting, 0/0 FT, 1 rebound
- Nate Robertson: 4 points, 2/4 shooting, 0/1 FT, 3 rebounds
Linton-Stockton
- Cooper Smith: 17 points, 8/9 shooting, 0/0 FT, 2 rebounds
- Jackson Miller: 5 points, 2/9 shooting, 0/0 FT, 2 rebounds
- Paul Oliver: 20 points, 8/16 shooting, 4/4 FT, 6 rebounds
- Hayden Feltner: 6 points, 3/7 shooting, 0/0 FT, 3 rebounds
- Avery Keen: 0 points, 0/1 shooting, 0/0 FT, 2 rebounds
- Michael Auberry: 2 points, 1/1 shooting, 0/0 FT, 0 rebounds
- Jacob Breedlove: 0 points, 0/0 shooting, 0/0 FT, 1 rebound
