By Noah Dalton
MITCHELL – Tuesday was a long night for fans at The Hive.
The night’s festivities began with a tightly contested junior varsity game that began the evening by going into overtime on a three-pointer made as time expired in the fourth quarter.
If that wasn’t enough tension for the Mitchell and West Washington faithful in attendance, the varsity game that followed found itself in an overtime period after the two sides spent much of the second half trading leads back and forth.
In both games, the Bluejackets emerged from OT with the win, much to the delight of the fans and family that had spent the past few hours on the edge of their seats.
Mitchell’s varsity matchup against the Senators began with back-to-back buckets from West Washington, propelling them to an early advantage, with the Bluejackets fighting back near the end of the quarter to take a lead of their own thanks to a three-pointer from Dawson Irwin, who was promoted to the team’s starting lineup on the night following an ankle injury to Bryson Shoults.
The lead trading continued into the second, with Mitchell’s Carl Chenault and Senators’ freshman Holden Russell each draining threes to keep either side from adding too much cushion to their lead, at least for the time being.
The largest lead of the game belonged to the Bluejackets in this period, as they managed to put themselves in the driver’s seat by seven points, courtesy of a strong showing from Gavin Robinson. The sophomore finished the first half with eight points, all of which came in the second quarter on a quick stretch of three straight and-ones.
On theme for the matchup, that margin didn’t stand for too long, as West Washington’s Ian Rosenbaum managed to hit a three as time expired in the half to make it a 32-28 game going into the second half. The Senators’ three-point shooting kept them going strong in the first half, connecting on 5/9 attempts to account for around half of their points at that time.
Mitchell head coach Jackson Ryan said his team stepped up on both sides of the ball in the second, aiding them in their performance to outscore West Washington 19-14 after they were outscored by a point in the first quarter.
“We just challenge them defensively. I thought at the first beginning of the second they got some easy stuff in the paint and we really challenged Nate Robertson, we really challenged Gavin Robinson defensively and I thought they stepped up,” he said.
“Offensively, I thought we started the game a little slow. They’re playing that zone, packing it in tonight and I thought we settled on the first couple of possessions, but then once we got some stops, we picked up our pace a little bit. I think our pace was a really big thing finishing off the first half there to get us a little momentum and to build that late and get that run.”
The Senators pushed back in the third, led by senior Titan Williams who scored six straight points in the paint to put his team back ahead. Add to that a couple of threes from Colton Brown and Jackson Wiseman and you’d get another small West Washington lead, this time by two points, after multiple lead changes to end the third.
Neither team gave up much ground in the fourth. Two straight baskets from Chenault and Austin Mosier for Mitchell to jump back ahead. Three points from Senators’ senior Kenton Chase less than a minute later for another lead change. So on and so forth.
Perhaps the biggest swing in the quarter came to the Bluejackets via senior Ben Seitzinger, who scored six straight points following Chase’s make to give Mitchell a five-point lead with just over two minutes left of regulation.
Though once again it didn’t last.
Rosenbaum drilled another big three for West Washington shortly after and, despite a clutch basket from Bluejackets’ senior Kale England, coming on a fast break started by a block from Mosier, two more baskets coming to the Senators’ way of Russell and Chase evened up the score at the end of the quarter.
Luckily for Mitchell, they managed to play some of the best basketball of the night in the overtime. A quick three from England put them ahead and from there, it was going to come down to free throw shooting if the Bluejackets wanted to head home with the win.
In the last few minutes of play, Mitchell made it to the stripe for 12 make-or-break attempts, 11 of which they managed to cash, ultimately leaving with a 64-58 victory.
Whether it was England’s clutch baskets in overtime and near the end of the fourth, Mosier’s timely free-throw shooting in overtime, making 5/6 attempts, Seitiznger’s run of six straight in the fourth or any number of other players made by the Bluejackets down the stretch, this win required full team participation, said Ryan.
“I thought Carl Chenault gave us great minutes in (Bryson Shoults’) place tonight. It was great to see Kale England step up, be a senior leader down the stretch and make some plays for us. He did a great job defensively the entire game on (Ian) Rosenbaum. So, I think that’s really big for us moving forward If Kale can give us this consistently. Mosier stepping up at the free throw line, finishing the finish the game off for us was huge,” he said.
“I can go up and down the line on everybody, but again, just a total team effort tonight and couldn’t be more proud of how we showed a lot of grit down the stretch to finish it off.”
This win against a Patoka Lake Athletic Conference foe in West Washington puts them at 3-2 in PLAC play, with another conference game on the horizon, this Saturday against Perry Central.
That matchup will not take place in either Mitchell or Leopold. Instead, the venue for this clash will be The Hoosier Gym in Knightstown, the site of the 1986 classic film “Hoosiers”.
“Saturday will be an absolute dogfight. It’s going to be physical, so, we cannot back down and we have to win the game mentally. If we can do those two things, we’ll get a win. But, they’re going to be ready to go. They’re very hungry. I know Coach Litherland is going to do everything they can to make this game as physical as possible,” Ryan said of the matchup.
“In today’s day and age, I don’t know how many of them have seen the movie Hoosiers. I know that I’m going to be quoting Norman Dale quotes the entire night and I’m sure our coaching staff will be too, so this is just an awesome opportunity for the kids and we’re looking forward to it but it’s also a business trip,” he added.
“It’s a big opportunity for us to get another win. That gets us to double digits on the year and gets us to 4-2 in the conference, in the top half of the PLAC. I think that would firmly put us at third for the conference on the year. So, we’re going in the right direction right now.”
Stats
Mitchell
- Austin Mosier: 15 points, 4/12 shooting, 7/8 FT, 4 rebounds
- Dawson Irwin: 5 points, 2/5 shooting, 0/0 FT, 4 rebounds
- Ben Seitzinger: 8 points, 3/4 shooting, 2/2 FT, 4 rebounds
- Kale England: 11 points, 5/7 shooting, 0/1 FT, 2 rebounds
- Gavin Robinson: 12 points, 4/5 shooting, 4/5 FT, 5 rebounds
- Aiden Pridemore: 2 points, 0/1 shooting, 2/2 FT, 1 rebound
- Nate Robertson: 6 points, 3/3 shooting, 0/0 FT, 3 rebounds
- Carl Chenault: 5 points, 2/6 shooting, 0/0 FT, 3 rebounds
West Washington
- Kenton Chase: 7 points, 3/5 shooting, 1/1 FT, 5 rebounds
- Ian Rosenbaum: 8 points, 3/10 shooting, 0/0 FT, 8 rebounds
- Holden Russell: 15 points, 4/8 shooting, 1/2 FT, 2 rebounds
- Titan Williams: 10 points, 5/9 shooting, 0/0 FT, 1 rebound
- Jaxson Cambron: 8 points, 3/8 shooting, 0/0 FT, 0 rebounds
- Colton Brown: 10 points, 3/5 shooting, 2/2 FT, 1 rebound
- Nash Ables: 0 points, 0/1 shooting, 0/0 FT, 0 rebounds
