By Noah Dalton
NASHVILLE – After losing two straight games on the road, including a loss to Loogootee the previous night, Mitchell High School bounced back in a big way, beating Brown County 87-64 on Saturday night.
The game marked the Bluejackets’ highest offensive output of the season with 87 points scored, blowing away their previous high on the year of 68 from their opening game against Springs Valley. It took a group effort, with eight players scoring for Mitchell on the night, five of which managed to wind up in double digits.
Those being Dawson Irwin, who led all scorers with 23, Austin Mosier with 10 points, Gavin Robinson, who scored 19, Nate Robertson, scoring 10, and Carl Chenault, who finished with 13.
It was a fast-paced game, which benefited the Bluejackets, particularly Robinson and Irwin, who combined for 33 points in the first half, outscoring the entire Brown County team, who scored 31 in the first half.
“This is the pace that we want to play at, and if you share the basketball and make the right reads, you can have nights like this. So, credit to those guys for stepping up and making shots and credit to those guys around them for just making the right reads and what I love about us on any given night, I feel like there’s six or seven guys that can lead us in scoring. So, that’s just a testament to our team and our makeup. Tonight, it was their night, and they stepped up and just made the plays,” said Mitchell head coach Jackson Ryan. “This was a total team effort. Anytime you put up that amount of points, it takes everybody. So we’re just proud of our guys.”
The breakneck speed of the game led to quite a few open shooters on transition plays, as the defenses scrambled to get back to the other end of the floor. The difference on the night was the Bluejackets’ ability to knock down those open looks, making 12 threes, and shooting 52% from that range.
The Eagles only knocked down 33% of their looks from deep on nearly the same number of attempts, 23 for Mitchell and 24 for Brown County.
The Bluejackets were also able to get to the line much more frequently, which was a huge factor in their win. Brown County attempted 11 free throws in the game, making nine (81%). For comparison, that is the exact stat line of one Mitchell player, Robinson, who himself went 9/11 from the stripe.
As a team, Mitchell attempted 28 free throws, cashing 20 of them (71%).
The team also got a huge jolt from the bench, which brought them 26 points, largely from Robertson and Chenault, and helped to keep the ship afloat.
“Thought we came out a little flat tonight and I thought our bench guys came in there and gave us a major spark in the first half, but throughout the game as well, just a major spark for us,” said Ryan. “Nate just making a hustle play and being rewarded for it there at the end of the first and I feel like Carl was just running the floor and we were finding him and he was just making things happen. So, you never know when your number is gonna get called and those two guys were ready and really got us going.
Ryan was happy his team got the job done and brought home the win, but hopes to see them learn from some sloppiness in this game, like the 12 turnovers that were committed, before they advance to the postseason.
“We found a way to get the job done and that’s all we want to do. Survive and advance and on to the next one. Sometimes, you’ve got to win ugly, and one thing we talked about in the locker room, I would much rather learn lessons from a win than a loss. So, we’re still gonna celebrate this. We’re not going to take these wins for granted. That puts us at 11,” he said.
“From here, hopefully, we can learn from some of our mistakes, and learn to keep our composure throughout the game. Because in March, we’re going to have games like this, there’s going to be nights like this, and do we play down to the level of our competition? Or do we take care of business? And, I felt like in spurts we played down to our level of competition tonight, but luckily did enough to win.”
At this time last season, the Bluejackets went on a big run to close the regular season, winning three of their last four as they headed into sectionals. With the same lineup of opponents and more than twice as many wins as they had at this time last year, Ryan is looking to do something similar to close this season.
Their next matchup is on the road again, this time at Edgewood (10-11), which will take place on Feb. 16, with a 7:30 tipoff.
“It was after the Loogootee game last year, that we went on a run. Can we do that? Can we rally the troops and can we use tonight to springboard us on? That’s a huge game. Edgewood is a quality opponent, and if we can get that one that is definitely a big one to ride that momentum and hopefully keep growing and we’ll be playing our best basketball by the end of the season,” he said.
Stats
Mitchell
- Austin Mosier: 10 points, 3/8 shooting, 1/2 FT, 1 rebound
- Dawson Irwin: 23 points, 8/16 shooting, 1/2 FT, 1 rebound
- Kale England: 9 points, 2/4 shooting, 0/0 FT, 6 rebounds
- Gavin Robinson: 19 points, 5/13 shooting, 9/11 FT, 11 rebounds
- Aiden Pridemore: 6 points, 2/5 shooting, 1/2 FT, 8 rebounds
- Nate Robertson: 10 points, 3/4 shooting, 3/5 FT, 8 rebounds
- Carl Chenault: 13 points, 4/6 shooting, 4/4 FT, 2 rebounds
- Tate Woods: 3 points, 1/2 shooting, 1/2 FT, 0 rebounds
Brown County
- Matt Horn: 4 points, 2/6 shooting, 0/0 FT, 4 rebounds
- Brady Bond: 21 points, 7/16 shooting, 4/5 FT, 6 rebounds
- Eli Wrightsman: 9 points, 4/12 shooting, 1/2 FT, 6 rebounds
- Noah Lewis: 6 points, 2/7 shooting, 0/0 FT, 1 rebound
- Jesse Hubbard: 12 points, 5/10 shooting, 2/2 FT, 3 rebounds
- Billy Harper: 0 points, 0/1 shooting, 0/0 FT, 0 rebounds
- Eli Harden: 9 points, 3/5 shooting, 2/2 FT, 6 rebounds
- Billy Hubbard: 3 points, 1/3 shooting, 0/0 FT, 1 rebound
