By Noah Dalton
ELLETTSVILLE – Mitchell High School returned to action on Saturday, hitting the road for their sixth straight game on the road, this time to take on Edgewood.
Against the Mustangs, Mitchell struggled from the floor, while Edgewood thrived, leading to a loss for the Bluejackets, 69-50.
The two sides battled in a contested first quarter. The Mustangs were the first to strike, scoring the first four points of the matchup before Mitchell fought back to claim their first lead of the game after scoring six unanswered, thanks to baskets from Kale England, Dawson Irwin, and Gavin Robinson. By the time the quarter was over, both teams sat even at nine points each.
That tie was brought on by a three from Edgewood’s Caden Jones at the end of the quarter, the first make from deep by either team to that point in the contest.
It served as a preview of what was ahead in the game, as momentum began to shift towards the Mustangs, who made 3/5 attempts from three in the second, helping them to outscore Mitchell 18-12 in the quarter.
That momentum carried for Edgewood through the break, as they continued to find success on the offensive end, this time led by Mialin White, who scored nine in the third after a quiet first half where he was held to just three points.
The Bluejackets struggled to find the bottom of the net, connecting on just 5/14 attempts from the floor in the quarter, as their deficit grew to 15 by the end of the third.
Though things looked up a bit for Mitchell in the fourth, increasing their field goal percentage to 50% from the sub-40% effort in the previous period, they still weren’t able to outscore the Mustangs, who continued to find points in the fourth.
Edgewood’s lead got up as high as 20 points in the fourth before a late-game push from the Bluejackets brought it within 13, but time was not on Mitchell’s side.
With just a few minutes left on the clock by this point, they were forced to intentionally foul to stop the Mustangs from just bleeding away the remaining time to negate any shot of completing a comeback.
With those fouls came free throws, which Edgewood gladly accepted and knocked down, making 10/12 to close out the win.
Bluejackets’ head coach Jackson Ryan felt his team generated solid scoring opportunities early on, but grew frustrated when those shots didn’t fall, which he felt impacted the way they played on both ends.
“We had a great week of practice and I felt like in the first quarter, we competed. We played hard, they got great looks, they just didn’t fall, and then they went on a bit of a run, and instead of staying the course, riding the ship, continuing to play the right way, we didn’t,” he said. “Things snowballed and I think you have to give credit to (Edgewood). They shot the ball really well, made us pay on a lot of back screens, and, bottom line, we just let things snowball.”
Based on what he’d seen from both sides in the first half, Ryan said he thought they were lucky to only be down six at the break. Things continued to get away from them in the third after he felt like that snowballing effect led to his team getting away from something he said they often preach, which is quality shot selection.
“I think about the start of the third quarter. Again, we just had a couple of empty possessions that we had terrible shots. They just took better shots than we did and made us pay for our mistakes and again, things just started to snowball,” he said.
“One thing we really try to preach is good-to-great on our shot selection. You can get a good shot a lot at the high school level, can you get a great shot? And, on nights like tonight, when we’re struggling to score, when we’re not shooting the ball well from deep, can you take a good possession and make it a great possession? And, if you can do that, and you can get going and unfortunately tonight, we did not do that.”
Mitchell were led in scoring on the night by Irwin, who scored 14, making the team’s lone three-pointer on the night. Just behind him was Robinson, who scored 13. The Bluejackets finished the night making just 19/44 attempts (43%), going just 1/14 from deep (14%).
Edgewood’s top scorer for the evening was Carson Huttenlocker, who ended the night was a game-high 17 points. Also in double figures for the Mustangs were White and Jacob Boggs, who each had 15.
They finished the night shooting 23/44 (52%), though the largest disparity between the sides was from beyond the arc, where they made 9/19 attempts (47%)
Now sitting at 11-10 on the season, Mitchell have just two games left on the schedule, those being matchups against Shoals and 3A #3 ranked Scottsburg.
Their next outing will see them finally return to The Hive for the first time since Jan. 23 to take on the Jug Rox (9-12).
Ryan said being back at home for the matchup for the first time in nearly a month will be a big boost for his team.
“We need to play a game at home. I think this one is five or six straight on the road and you can tell. I think a lot of these things don’t maybe snowball as much,” Ryan said.
The game will also be senior night, for the Bluejackets, who have five seniors on this year’s team: Irwin, Kale England, Bryson Shoults, Ben Seitzinger and Ethan Turner.
Ryan hopes that Tuesday’s game can be a great send-off for that group, as it will be their last home game for the school.
Those guys definitely deserve it. All I know as a coach at Mitchell High School, is Kale England, Ben Seitzinger, and Bryson Shoults, those are the three guys that have been in our program since I’ve been here and then you have Ethan Turner and also Dawson Irwin. This is a special group. A special group to me, a special group for this program,” said Ryan.
“They embody Mitchell basketball on and off the floor. We’re really going to challenge our guys to come together, leave it all out there for those guys. And again, they deserve that send off and we need to do everything in our power to make sure they get sent off in the right way.”
